Press Association: C of E General Synod rejects compromise on women bishops

The Church of England was in fresh turmoil after two of its most senior clerics failed in their bid to avert a split over women bishops when a vote at the General Synod went against their compromise proposals.

New safeguards for objectors put forward by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu received the backing of a majority of the houses of bishops and laity of the General Synod.

Read it all.

Update: You may find good details of the debate, including the vote margins in the three houses, here.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Anglican Provinces, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop of York John Sentamu, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Women

14 comments on “Press Association: C of E General Synod rejects compromise on women bishops

  1. Ad Orientem says:

    Excellent news! This should tear down what remains of the tattered cloak behind which the so called Anglo-Catholics have attempted to hide. No more fudge. It’s decision time for the A-C crowd now.

  2. Dr. William Tighe says:

    Or, as that noted theologian and eccleiastical commentator, V. I. Lenin, once observed, “the worse, the better.”

  3. DTerwilliger says:

    Was a comment on this article just removed?

    I believe we will now see those Bishops and dioceses who have had talks with Rome shore up their resolve to leave.

  4. Ad Orientem says:

    [blockquote]Was a comment on this article just removed? [/blockquote]

    Yes.

  5. The_Elves says:

    [Please remember that comments suggesting, encouraging or instructing readers to leave or join any church are against comment policy at T19 and liable to removal – Elf]

  6. austin says:

    One should note that the women clergy, several of whom have their eyes on mitres, determined the outcome. They were able to overcome majorities of the bishops and laity who were prepared to make provision for the orthodox.

    [Edited by Elf]

  7. austin says:

    Edited by elf. With knobs on.

  8. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Torpedoed. The Anglitanic struck amidships by the long lance torpedo of equality must equal parity in purely political terms.

  9. Geofrey says:

    May God grant the orthodox Anglo-catholics and evangelicals unity and safe haven!

  10. A Senior Priest says:

    Ohhhh they are SO gonna deserve what they get from this. As a priest associate of the Holy House of Our Lady of Walsingham I’d support the Guardians taking the entire place to Rome. This is the perfect picture of the triumph of notional theology over reality. Now we’ll have the Bishop of Dibley!

  11. Abouna says:

    There is a certain logic to the objection to two track episcopacy. Since a bishop is a source of unity in the local church, the two track provision does manifest the way in which lady bishops are not, in some ways, a source of unity. But the provision does not create the situation of a bishop who de facto is as much a source of division as unity, it only manifests it, and tries to manage it; and I am afraid that voting down the provision does not, in fact, actually make lady bishops a source of unity.

    Fr Yousuf

  12. MarkP says:

    “women clergy, several of whom have their eyes on mitres, ”

    Out of curiosity, do you really believe it was their self-interested desire for “mitres” that determined their votes? In other words, do you believe that they wouldn’t have voted this way if they weren’t ambitious in this way? My guess is most of the women clergy voting actually believe in the rightness of this vote, but you’re suggesting they’re just doing it because they have “their eyes on mitres”, and I suppose you know them better than I do.

  13. bettcee says:

    They have cast their lot for the powerful and against the Christians.

  14. TridentineVirginian says:

    How can anyone be surprised at this outcome? The dam broke when the ordination of women was allowed. Once you buy in to the justification for that, you have no defense against admission of women to the episcopacy.

    Anglicanorum coetibus beckons – come on over Anglo-Catholics!