UK: Women bishops come a step closer

[muriel_volestrangler]

The Church of England's ruling body has voted to remove the legal blocks stopping women from becoming bishops.

The vote beginning "the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women" came after a debate at the General Synod in York.

It was passed despite traditionalists threatening to become Roman Catholic.
...
Women now make up half of those training as Anglican clergy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4670631.stm

It grinds exceeding slow, but the Church of England is getting there. As an atheist (and kudos for John Snow, when discussing this on Channel 4 News, for slipping in an "if God does exist" in a question to a bishop), I don't have a dog in this fight (apart from a general wish for equality). But I think the last sentence I quoted is vital; if women are half of those going into the clergy (and I would think at least half of the congregation), they can't resist the movement for women bishops without condemning the CofE to irrelevancy. The bishop that Snow was interviewing was pontificating (pun intended) on tradition, and that clerical power was something special; unfortunately, Snow missed the chance to point out that the Church of England achieved its present form under a female head (Elizabeth I), and has existed for the past 53 years under a female head (Elizabeth II). The bishop looked like a misogynistic dinosaur, in my opinion, and if he's the best representative of the resistance, they'll go down in record time.

[Benbow]

1. Er, under King Henry VIII surely

You suggested that "the Church of England achieved its present form under a female head (Elizabeth I)". But it was King Henry VIII who broke with Rome - by the Act of Supremacy (1534) that "recognised that the king was 'the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia'".

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page19.asp

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. But it then went back Catholic under Mary I

(and that was after further Protestant development under Edward VI). The Thirty Nine Articles, which define the doctrine of the CofE, originated in 1562 - http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1453