Vote on women bishops set to be postponed

A move will be made to adjourn giving final approval to legislation introducing women bishops at a meeting today of the General Synod at York University.

The postponement would allow for a controversial last-minute change to the legislation made earlier this year by the Church of England bishops to be reconsidered and the legislation would return for debate in November.

The dispute centres on how far the Church of England should accommodate traditionalist parishes who object to the appointment of a woman bishop in their diocese.

Pro-women campaigners have said the new amendment would enshrine discrimination against women in law by allowing traditionalists to choose a male bishop who shares their own views on female clergy.

Senior female clergy have threatened to vote with conservative evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics against final approval of the legislation if the amendment is not reconsidered by the bishops.

The move came after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams acknowledged many in the Church felt “profoundly frustrated” with the difficulties it has faced over the introduction of women bishops.

In a sermon in York Minster yesterday, he said whatever the outcome of its negotiations, the Church of England must not become “depressed” over its problems. “The last thing our society or our world needs is a depressed Church.””

Later a senior bishop said rioting could provide participants with a form of “spiritual escape” from a hopeless life.

The Rt Rev Peter Price, Bishop of Bath and Wells, condemned the rioting on the streets of England last August but he believed some young people were desperate to escape from the constrained lives to which they appeared to be “condemned”.

He was introducing a report on the response of clergy and parishes to the riots.