The Church of England, which has the largest following of any denomination or faith in Britain, crossed a historic landmark when its General Synod overwhelmingly voted in favour of appointing women as bishops.
“The stained glass ceiling has been broken,” said one of the hundreds of tweets that celebrated the vote. “We are delighted,” Hilary Cotton, Chair of the group WATCH (Women and the Church) told The Hindu . “Women can now share equally with men in leadership in the church; we were never lesser Christians in the eyes of God, but we are now equal in the eyes of the Church too,” she said.
The right for women to be ordained as priests was won 20 years ago and there are 4,200 women in the Church of England who are ordained. The recent resolution is a major breakthrough as it enables the consecration of women as bishops, thereby taking women’s representation to the highest level in the leadership of the church.
Requiring a two-thirds majority in the three constituent parts of the Synod, namely, the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and House of Laity, Yes votes carried the day, clearing the decks for new enabling legislation that will take women to the top of the Church’s hierarchy.
The results were as follows: In the House of Bishops, Yes 37, No 2 and abstentions 1; House of Clergy, Yes 162, No 25 and abstentions 4; and House of Laity Yes 152, No 45 and abstentions 5.
The same proposal, when voted on in November 2012, failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority in the House of Laity.
Indian woman Bishop The consecration of Pushpa Lalitha of the Nandyal Diocese as first woman bishop of the Church of South India set a strong affirmative example for the Church of England, said Ms. Cotton. “We felt that if India could do it, so could we,” she said.
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, said: “This is a momentous day. Generations of women have served the Lord faithfully in the Church of England for centuries. It is a moment of joy today: the office of Bishop is open to them.”
The subservient position of the church vis-à-vis the state in Britain necessitates that the legislation is approved by Parliament. The measure, once approved by Parliament, will return to the General Synod in November, which will then make a formal legal announcement. The first women bishops could be installed before the end of the year.
