Anglicans in Wales vote for women bishops


In England as in Wales, the overwhelming majority of members of the Anglican church support the consecration of women as bishops, and by the same proportion as the general public - nearly three to one.

Almost all the existing bishops support this, a majority of clergy support it, and a majority of lay representatives in the General Synod support it.

I was horrified when by just four votes the "Stop the world, God wants us to get off" tendancy managed to get a blocking third in one of the three houses of the General Synod to stop the proposal, which needed a two-thirds majority in all three chambers. Thus creating the unfair but understandable impression for the general public that the Church of England is a bunch of dinosaurs left over from the last millenium and with nothing useful to say about this one.

So I welcome the long overdue decision by the Church in Wales to consecrate women as bishops and I hope the Church of England will do the same in the near future.

When the original debate about whether to ordain women as priests took place I can remember that there were strong and sincere arguments put forward by both sides. One of relatively few areas of common ground - indeed, it was used as an argument by the opponents of change - was that the ordination of women priests would make inevitable the eventual consecration of women bishops. I have to confess myself absolutely astonished that thirty years later it hasn't happened.

And while I could respect those who argued against the ordination of women even while I disagreed with them, there is no possible shred of inellectual coherence in the idea that God would call women to be priests but not bishops.

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