London, UK - Plans to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England have been delayed by at least four years in an attempt to avoid mass defections by opponents of women’s ordination.
Church legislators have backtracked on a decision made by the General Synod, the Church’s governing body, last year to consecrate women bishops with minimal concessions to opponents.
The Church will now be asked again to approve the plans for “super bishops”, which were rejected in July last year and which will create a new class of bishop, operating in traditionalist zones “untainted” by the spectre of women bishops.
But the revisions are expected to be strongly contested by supporters of women’s ordination.
When the debate on women bishops began, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, had indicated that he would like to see women bishops ordained by 2010. The legislation is unlikely now to go through before 2014 at the earliest.
The debate has aroused strong passions in the Church, with an unusually large number of worshippers writing to the revision committee of the synod to argue that a mere code of practice to protect traditionalists was not enough.
Nearly 300 people including more than 100 from members of the synod itself, about a quarter of its total membership, protested, with many lobbying for the legally constituted super bishops instead of a code of practice.
The Church of England said last night that certain functions would now be “vested in bishops by statute rather than by delegation from the diocesan bishop under a statutory code of practice”.
But this decision must still be passed by diocesan synods and the General Synod itself, where it will need a two-thirds majority from bishops, clergy and laity. It will then need parliamentary approval and Royal Assent.
The laity in particular are likely to resist the super bishops because of fears that they will create a “Church within a Church” and will enshrine ecclesiastical prejudice against women into the statute book. But traditionalists welcomed the move. Paul Dawson of Reform, a Church group that has called for more concessions to opponents of women bishops, said: “This looks like it could be what was needed to avert a split and preserve unity among people who differ on this issue. We will need to examine the detail, but we welcome this move and will work to secure widespread agreement.”
Going ahead with minimal concessions was likely to have led to a wave of conversions to Roman Catholicism.
Catholic and evangelical bishops last year held secret talks in Rome to discuss how to proceed with unity talks once women are ordained, and what, if any, kind of recognition might be granted by Rome.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had urged generous provision for opponents.
The super bishops would be an upgraded version of the “flying bishops” that were appointed to care for opponents of women priests and which will be phased out when women are ordained bishops.
Dr Williams told synod members in July last year that he would be unhappy to see a “systematic marginalisation” of Anglo-Catholics, whom he described as a “necessary abrasion”.