Church facing ‘major crisis’ over women bishops

Steps must be taken by July next year to consecrate women bishops and vote them through by 2015, or it risks the matter being taken out of its hands by Parliament, a memo by William Fittall, secretary general to the General Synod, said.

The document, leaked to The Times, is addressed to members of the Archbishops’ Council, a group made up of the archbishops of Canterbury and York and other leading clergy and lay people in the Church of England.

The Times reported that Mr Fittall, the Church of England’s most senior “civil servant”, wrote the memo within 72 hours of the vote last Tuesday which saw the legislation carried in the General Synod houses of bishops and clergy but fail by six votes to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority in the house of laity.

The decision has badly damaged the Church of England, Mr Fittall wrote. “Within the Church the effect on morale – particularly but not exclusively on that of female clergy – is severe,” he said.

Mr Fittall outlines simpler legislation, such as a clause to consecrate women bishops with no provision for opponents, being put to the General Synod when it meets at the University of York in July.