The Melbourne Anglican synod has broken ranks with the rest of the Anglican Church, approving the immediate ordination of women bishops.
The Melbourne synod was expected to await approval of the motion at the national synod next October - a motion the powerful and conservative Sydney diocese is expected to vehemently oppose.
But in a surprise move, the Melbourne synod voted by an overwhelming majority to immediately consider women for vacant bishop positions regardless of whether the national synod approved the motion.
The position of regional bishop for the Melbourne diocese northern suburbs has remained vacant for some time, and the search for candidates has extended as far as Britain.
The Reverend Charles Sherlock, who put the motion, hopes it will have enough support throughout the country to be passed at the national synod, or church parliament, next year.
"We really do believe that God doesn't want barriers of gender in the priesthood," he said. "We hope that we have come up with a proposal that is phrased in a way that Sydney might let through. They might not support it but they may let it through."
Since 1992 the Anglican Church has allowed the question of female priests to be decided on a parish-by-parish basis. But the Sydney diocese and a few others have refused to allow women into the priesthood and have rebuffed bishops who ordain female priests.
If passed at the national synod, the motion will allow each diocese to decide whether to allow women to be bishops.
Those opposed could then not only refuse to acknowledge the female bishops but also priests of either sex who are ordained by female bishops, further dividing the church.
But Mr Sherlock, whose wife, Archdeacon Peta Sherlock, is a frontrunner to become Australia's first female bishop, maintains that the motion is in the church's best interests.
"I really do think for a whole lot of reasons based in the Bible, theology and a whole lot of other things that it is right that all orders of ministry be open to men and women," he said.
"I believe I would keep pressing that even if it causes temporary difficulties."
Canada, the US and New Zealand are the only other nations where female Anglican bishops are allowed.
In Australia, women make up about 12 per cent of the Anglican clergy, with 262 priests and 154 deacons.