Ruth Gledhill: Setback for Traditionalists
"In the first step towards women bishops, the General Synod voted yesterday to enforce a church law that upholds the ordination of all bishops, priests and deacons without exception.
"Until now, an Act of Synod has protected Anglican Catholics who refuse to accept the ordination of women as valid and allowed them to declare their parishes “no-go zones” for women priests.
"Traditionalists do not want women to have the power of ordination — something they would have as bishops — and have asked for a “third province”, in effect a church within a church, to ensure that apostolic succession in the Church remains “untainted” by women’s hands.
"Earlier this year bishops tried to draw up a plan that would have created havens for traditionalists, but their attempts collapsed in disarray. Yesterday the General Synod agreed in York to set up a new group to tackle the framing of the legislation for women bishops. The legislation will be voted on in about five years and will need a two-thirds majority to pass."
Read the rest in The Times (London).
Read also Ruth Gledhill's account of Days
One, Two, and Three.
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