Church is warned over 'mistake' of ordaining women bishops

Fifty Church of England clergy with links to the evangelical grouping Reform have signed an open letter to bishops and members of the Church's governing body, the General Synod, warning that consecrating women as bishops would be a "mistake".

The group has demanded that special bishops are created to minister to parishes and clergy who object to women bishops with powers to ordain and approve the training of vicars.

Chairman of Reform, the Rev Rod Thomas, of St Matthew's Church, Elburton, Plymouth, who heads the list of signatories, said: "For those of us ordained since 1992, our understanding, in good faith, was that proper legal provision would be made for those who did not agree that women should have the overall leadership of a church.

"It seems to us a matter of simple integrity that Synod should now keep its word to us in this and not force us down a road none of us wish to tread."

The signatories to the letter said that over the last decade they had sent more than 180 men into ordained ministry, as well as contributing more than 20m to the Church of England's finances.

They warn that if the Church fails to cater adequately for objectors then they would have to encourage new potential trainee vicars to consider training for ministry outside the Church of England – and help pay for them.

The letter came as the General Synod met yesterday to discuss delays in introducing women bishops at the start of a week-long meeting of its governing body.

Members of the General Synod, meeting in London, heard a presentation from the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, about the "daunting" task of drawing up legislation on the issue.

He confirmed that a group working on legislation to introduce women bishops had not yet completed their task after more than 300 submissions were received on the subject. But he said members of the group had so far rejected proposals to create new dioceses or a special class of bishops with statutory powers to minister to those opposed to women bishops in the Church.

He said the group believed any arrangements to cater for objectors should be on the basis of delegation from the diocesan bishops.

Mr McCulloch said the committee now hoped to complete their task in good time for the General Synod to consider the proposals at its July meeting in York.

He added: "The task of the revision committee is to send back to the Synod something that will provide a coherent basis for the next – and potentially most crucial – phase of the discussion, in which the whole Synod will have to revisit many of the arguments with which we have agonised for so long."