Irl/UK : The newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Justin Welby of
Durham, is still waiting to be enthroned.
But already he must feel the
honeymoon period he expected at the beginning of his time in office has
come to end.
His predecessor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, leaves Lambeth
Palace next month not so much with a bang but with a whimper after the
damp squib that was this week’s vote on women bishops in the General
Synod of the Church of England.
Undoubtedly, the Church of England
will recover from what is nothing less than a public relations
disaster.
Monday night’s vote goes against the leadership of the Church
of England, and against all that has been said in parishes and dioceses
throughout England.
In all, 42 of the 44 dioceses had already approved
the measure; the bishops provided excellent leadership throughout the
debate and they were virtually unanimous in their support for the
legislation.
The clergy too were supportive almost to the same degree.
But
it must not be forgotten that the House of Laity also voted
overwhelmingly in favour of women bishops.
The measure only failed to
reach the required two-thirds majority by the slimmest of margins – six
votes or 1.03 per cent.
Those who initially opposed the proposal on the
grounds that too many concessions had been made to the opponents in an
unholy alliance of extreme evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics may now feel
they have been proved right, that the structures of the General Synod
need a complete overhaul, and that the guarantees to parishes that
refuse the ministry of women priests should be rescinded.
The
Church of England now faces a Sisyphean task as it tries to roll back
this disaster and tries not only to recover its credibility but its
right to speak with moral authority to the nation as the Established
Church.
Meanwhile, all eyes in the Anglican Communion may now turn to
the Church of Ireland to see if a woman is elected as a bishop for one
of the two dioceses that are vacant.