Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Church rift over women bishops 'may last years'

The Church of England is facing the prospect of years of acrimony amid signs that a long-awaited final vote to approve women bishops could be lost.

Individual dioceses have already voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plan, but it still needs to be approved at a special sitting of the Church’s General Synod in London this month. 
 
The Synod vote had been due to take place in July, but was postponed after a last-minute row over wording.

A compromise was later agreed, granting traditionalists — who believe that female leadership in the Church goes against the Bible’s teaching — the right to have an alternative male bishop chosen “in a manner which respects” their theological convictions. 
However, a small but well-organised coalition of traditionalist Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals has joined forces, claiming that the compromise is “not fit for purpose” because it still does not provide enough assurances for them. 

They believe they could have secured enough votes in at least one part of the Synod to deny the measure the full two thirds approval it requires to be passed.

If they succeed, although averting the prospect of some opponents of the change leaving the Church of England, it could anger a much larger strand within the Church, a prospect that has caused alarm among senior leadership.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has recently lined up a string of current bishops to issue personal video messages warning members of the Synod that failure to pass the measure now would be a “disaster”. 

They believe that the inability to agree the plan, after years of tortuous wrangling over wording, would make the Church look ridiculous to those they are trying to attract, as well as causing bitter new divisions inside.
 
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, warned bluntly that failure now would “look terrible in the eyes of the world” and “plunge us into years’ more debate on this issue”. 

But traditionalists have stepped up their own charm offensive, calculating that they only need to deny the bill a two thirds majority in one of the three houses of Synod — Bishops, Clergy or Laity — to halt its progress. In theory that could require the votes of little more than one in 10 of the Synod’s members.
 
The Rev Prebendary Rod Thomas, chairman of the Reform group of evangelicals, said he believed there was a real possibility that the measure would be voted down.
 
One veteran campaigner for women bishops warned that defeat by a small minority unhappy with concessions would spark “huge anger” among the rank and file.
 
“Too much attention has gone to this 'poor, poor beleaguered minority’,” she said. “They have been pushing this but they are like a spoilt child: the more you give them, the more they want.”
 
But one Anglo-Catholic campaigner accused the women’s campaigners of destablising church unity.
 
“There will always be people who want to push boundaries — children push boundaries,” he said.