In England, women bishops a closer reality with new legislation
Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] For some it might be a case of déjà vu; for others it’s a new day as the Church of England cleared a major hurdle Feb. 11 giving its assent to new legislation that would enable women to become bishops.
Meeting in Westminster, the church’s General Synod supported legislation “enabling women, as well as men, to be consecrated to the office of bishop if they otherwise satisfy the requirements of Canon Law as to the persons who may be consecrated as bishops.”
The vote comes almost 15 months after synod narrowly rejected similar, but more complex, legislation to accept women as bishops. Various groups, including a steering committee and the House of Bishops, have since worked towards advancing as efficiently as possible a legislative package that could be supported by the overall majority.
The legislation, called a measure, now needs to be approved by a majority of the church’s 44 dioceses, which would typically take at least 12 months. But synod achieved the required 75 percent majority to suspend temporarily one of its standing orders and agreed to curtail the consultation period for the dioceses to just a few months, thus enabling the legislation to come back to synod in July for final approval. The deadline for diocesan responses is midnight on May 22. Last time, 42 of the 44 dioceses supported the legislation. Since the creation of synod in 1970, this is the first time a piece of legislation on the same subject has had to be sent to the dioceses for a second time.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/02/11/in-england-women-bishops-a-closer-reality-with-new-legislation/