A move by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to soften the women-bishops legislation, rejected by the General Synod in July last year, might return to the Synod next February.
The Catholic Group in Synod said on Tuesday that it was likely that the Synod would be invited to debate in February a motion “calling on the House of Bishops to exercise its powers to amend the Measure in the manner of the amendment jointly proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York”.
The Archbishops’ amendment had sought to establish bishops acceptÂable to traditionalists whose authÂority was derived from the legisla-tion ”” not delegated from the diocesan bishop, who might be a woman, as is proposed in the main Measure. AlÂthough it was defeated narrowly in the House of Clergy, it nevertheless achieved an overall majority.