WATCH disappointed that women bishops unlikely in next five years

19th February 2008 for immediate release

Women bishops 'highly unlikely' for another five years

"It is inconceivable that the process of legislation to put into effect the decision of General Synod to proceed to Women Bishops should take more than a year and a half. Certainly the legislative process could easily be completed by July 2010. It would be negligent of the General Synod to permit the matter to drag on into the next decade. The business managers of Synod should already be considering having additional meetings of Synod to ensure that this business is accomplished.” Prof Anthony Berry, Synod Member

At the recent meeting of General Synod, members were told by the Chair of the Legislative Drafting Group that it was "highly unlikely” that the vote on women bishops would be taken by July 2010.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, chair of the group preparing draft legislation for women bishops, outlined the process and predicted the likely time it would take.

The bishop's statement shocked a large number of Synod members, who met and expressed their outrage at the length of time the process was taking.

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, one of the youngest members of Synod, said she only learned in theological college that women still couldn't be bishops. "Many people, especially young people, are unaware that women can't be bishops in the Church of England, and are horrified when they discover that the Church currently has such inequality enshrined in legislation. Synod voted over two years ago to remove this barrier. Let's just get on with it.”

Revd Mark Bennet commented "The wider church has been waiting for women to be made bishops, yet the House of Bishops seems afraid to push this forward. Instead, discredited theological arguments are being rehashed, while our existing leaders hold tight to the power they have.”

Christina Rees, chair of WATCH said "One could be forgiven for thinking that everything possible is being done to slow down the process. At this rate, it might well be eight years between Synod voting to remove the legal barriers to women bishops and actually appointing a woman as a bishop. Meanwhile, the Church is still sending out the message that men are more privileged and valued than women.”

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A new Synod will be elected in the autumn of 2010, with the first meeting taking place in November. It is not clear what would happen to the progress of legislation for women bishops if the final vote is not taken during the lifetime of the current Synod.

Professor Anthony Berry, a member of Synod, was moved to write the following comment after reflecting on the way the issue of women bishops is being dealt with in the Church:

"The opponents of women priests and bishops argue that men and women were created as complements to each other as a creative and creating sexual couple. But such opponents then adduce that one of the sexes is, to borrow Orwell's, phrase "more equal than the other” in matters of authority. This argument surely cannot hold in matters of the church spiritual for if it did, we Christians would have to accept that the created order would place men or women subservient to the other.

"Further if this equal but sexually different argument is driven into matters of church order (the church temporal) then it sexualises the whole of my male human identity and capabilities and claims that these are in all cases superior to the sexualised identity and capabilities of all women. I find this profoundly offensive to my understanding of human sexuality, identities and capabilities and also to my relations with both men and women.

"The business managers of the Church are probably right to have some sensitivity in the run up to the Lambeth Conference, but in the Anglican covenant process it has been legally confirmed that the Church of England has the right under the Queen in Parliament to order its own affairs. Wisely, this ordering is done in the context of the wider Anglican Communion, where a number of provinces do already have women bishops.

"It is inconceivable that the process of legislation to put into effect the decision of General Synod to proceed to Women Bishops should take more than a year and a half. Certainly the legislative process could easily be completed by July 2010. It would be negligent of the General Synod to permit the matter to drag on into the next decade. The business managers of Synod should already be considering having additional meetings of Synod to ensure that this business is accomplished.”

CONTACTS:

Christina Rees (Chair) Miranda Threlfall- Holmes

Tel: 01763-848-822 Tel: 01913-750-785

eMail: Christina@MediaMaxima.com eMail: Miranda.threlfall-holmes@durham.ac.uk

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