There is now no doubt that the Church of England will consecrate its first woman bishop within the next couple of years. This will happen without any statutory provision for those who in conscience cannot accept women\u2019s episcopacy. The significant minority of clergy and laity who oppose this innovation will simply be told to like it \u201d\u201c or lump it and go elsewhere. Thus tens of thousands of traditional and faithful Anglicans will be unchurched.
This stinking fish has been a long time on the slab. Back in 1992, the church voted to admit women to the priesthood, but this was only agreed upon the intervention of the then Archbishop of York, Dr John Habgood, who insisted that there were \u201ctwo integrities\u201d\u009d within the church: the one that could accept women priests and the other that could not. Room must be made for both. If Dr Habgood\u2019s agreeable compromise had not been accepted then there would not have been a majority in favour of the ordination of women.<\/p>\n
The radical innovators, illiberal \u201cliberals,\u201d\u009d non-believing secularists and intolerant feminists who together govern the church are determined not to make the same mistake again. They are saying to the opponents of women bishops, \u201cWell, get out then!\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201c except this injunction is not generally put even as politely as that.<\/p>\n