Anglican Church to Discuss Female Bishops

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5160184.stm
 
Call for enclave of male clergy in the Church
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
7/08/2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/08/nchurch08.xml
Opponents of women bishops stepped up demands for their own "Church-within-a-Church" yesterday as the Church of England's General Synod met in York to try to break the deadlock over the divisive issue.

A group of more than 100 traditionalist clergy who were all ordained after the Synod voted to admit women to the priesthood 13 years ago said they had been promised at the time a "permanent and equal" place in the Church.

In a statement, the clergy said that if the Synod now failed to provide them with "all that is necessary" for them to remain in the Church when women became bishops, it would represent a "betrayal of trust".

The traditionalists want a legally watertight enclave exclusively for male clergy, complete with its own archbishop and bishops, which would allow them to co-exist with the rest of the Church after women have been consecrated. They are threatening a mass exodus if they do not get their way.

The liberals, however, regard such a plan as unjust, insulting to women and tantamount to legalised schism.

The traditionalists want a legally watertight enclave exclusively for male clergy, complete with its own archbishop and bishops, which would allow them to co-exist with the rest of the Church after women have been consecrated. They are threatening a mass exodus if they do not get their way.

The liberals, however, regard such a plan as unjust, insulting to women and tantamount to legalised schism.

A proposed compromise, under which traditionalist parishes could opt for the care of sympathetic male bishops, has been scrapped because the House of Bishops is too deeply split. As a result, the Synod has been asked to debate the issue of women bishops this week with no clear guidance from the House of Bishops.

Today it will vote on whether the concept of women bishops is "theologically justified".

If this motion is passed, as expected, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will urge the Synod on Monday to set up a legislative drafting group.

The group would be asked to prepare a draft measure to allow the consecration of women and, more importantly, to propose a range of possible compromises to assuage traditionalists.

Observers said it was difficult to see what this group could come up with that had not already been proposed, and rejected, by the bishops.

Both sides of the debate have been becoming increasingly entrenched, and the issue is creating mounting division and disarray.

The 111 traditionalist clergy who signed the statement made clear their determination to fight their corner. They said that "it was because we trusted the promises made to us by the Church of England that we felt able to offer ourselves for ordination".

Meanwhile, Dr Williams last night told the Synod that the liberal American branch of Anglicanism had produced a "degree of recognisable response" to demands that it should toe the conservative line on gay bishops, but had left "a number of unanswered questions".