Supporters of female bishops have made obvious gains ”“ but why do the opponents believe they’ve done well too?
…the more politically savvy among them understand that this compromise allows them to live and flourish another day.
The backlash against them after last November’s fiasco was so strong that moves were made to unseat Dr Philip Giddings, a prominent conservative evangelical who is also chairman of the synod’s house of laity.
The Guardian has seen Giddings’ reflections on the legislation, intended for fellow evangelicals only. He is quite clear that without conceding on this issue his faction would have suffered horribly in the upcoming synod election.
He writes: “The issues which will be (indeed already are being) brought before us in relating to marriage, family, human sexuality; and, even more critically, the uniqueness and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. To sustain a biblically orthodox position for the Church of England on those issues we need to maximise our representation in future synods. To achieve that, we need to deal with the women bishops now and get it off the agenda.”