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| Dr Rowan Williams, centre, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury speaks during a meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England in central London, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, - where a vote on whether to give final approval to legislation introducing the first women bishops will take place. The leader of the Church of England appealed for harmony among the faithful as it went into a vote Tuesday on whether to allow women to serve as bishops, a historic decision that comes after decades of debate. The push to muster a two-thirds majority among lay members of the General Synod is expected to be close, with many on both sides unsatisfied with a compromise proposal to accommodate individual parishes which spurn female bishops. |
LONDON (AP)
-- The Church of England's governing body blocked a move Tuesday to
permit women to serve as bishops in a vote so close it failed to settle
the question of female leadership and likely condemned the institution
to years more debate on the issue.
The General
Synod's daylong debate ended with the rejection of a compromise that
was intended to unify the faithful despite differing views on whether
women should be allowed in the hierarchy. But backers failed to gain the
necessary majority by six votes.
"There is no victory in the coming days," said Rev. Angus MacLeay. "It is a train crash."
The
defeat was a setback for Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who
retires at the end of December, and his successor, Bishop Justin Welby.
Both had strongly endorsed a proposed compromise that would have
respected the decision of those who objected to the ordination of women
bishops.
Instead of ending decades of debate
on the issue in the church, the narrow defeat opens the church, which
has around 80 million members worldwide, to further years of internal
discussions. It also forms an uncomfortable backdrop to the start of
Welby's leadership. He is due to be enthroned in March.
Passage
of legislation to allow women to serve as bishops must be approved by
two-thirds majorities in the synod's three houses: bishops, priests and
laity. Some took heart in the fact that both the bishops and the clergy
voted overwhelmingly in favor. But among the laity, the vote fell short,
with 132-74.
"This leaves us with a problem,"
said Bishop Graham James of Norwich. "Forty-two out of 44 dioceses
approved the legislation and more than three-quarters of members of
diocesan synods voted in favor.
"There will be many who wonder why the General Synod expressed its mind so differently," James added.
Rev. Rachel Weir, leader of Women and the Church, said the group was "absolutely devastated."
"Obviously
this will be an enormous blow to clergy women, it's awful for their
morale - but it's a disaster for the Church of England."
Despite the vote, several bishops noted that a woman, Queen Elizabeth II, is the church's supreme governor.
It
has been 36 years since the General Synod declared it had no
fundamental objection to ordaining women as priests, and 18 years since
the first women were ordained. But that change never won universal
acceptance in the church, with a determined minority arguing that that
the move was contrary to the Bible.
That
group, affirming what it sees as the Biblical idea of male "headship,"
has demanded special arrangements to shield it from supervision by
female bishops.
Synod members were voting on
the latest compromise. It called for church leaders to "respect" the
position of parishes that oppose female bishops - without saying what
"respect" would mean in practice.
"The trouble
is our disagreement is absolute: either a woman can be a bishop, or she
cannot," said Rev. Janet Appleby, a parish priest who drafted the
compromise.
But she added that "respect ...
ensures that parishes that are unable in conscience to accept women
priests and bishops will be able to receive appropriate ministerial and
episcopal oversight."
But some found fault
with the measure itself. Canon Simon Killwick from Manchester argued
that it was "possible to be in favor of women bishops in principle, but
to believe that this was the wrong legislation for introducing women
bishops."
Church officials say it may take five years to go through the process of taking new legislation to a final vote.
There
was much talk from opponents about fresh negotiations, but few ideas
about how to resolve the split.
Bishops called an emergency meeting for
Wednesday morning to assess the result, church officials said.
"We
all think something different is right," said Rev. James Dudley-Smith.
"We are divided and yet today we are forcing ourselves to vote."
Sister churches of the Anglican Communion in Australia, New Zealand and the United States already have women serving as bishops.
Southern Africa joined that group on Sunday with the consecration of Ellinah Wamukoya as the Anglican bishop of Swaziland.
