After years of deadlock and division, the Church of England voted on Monday to allow women to become bishops, overturning centuries of tradition and overcoming a dispute that had undermined the unity of Anglicans.
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The move to allow women as bishops was supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the church and the global Anglican Communion, who told the BBC before the vote that the public would find the exclusion of women “almost incomprehensible.”
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Those who voiced opposition during a debate on Monday included Bishop John Goddard of Burnley, who said he could not vote in favor of the legislation “out of obedience to God.”
“Out of theological conviction, I must vote no,” he said, according to The Press Association.
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The latest proposals, which were voted on at a meeting in the northern city of York, included concessions to traditionalists by allowing parishes that are unwilling to accept a woman as bishop to request a man. An ombudsman would be offered to arbitrate in the event of a dispute.
“Women will be bishops like all other bishops with no distinction at all,” Archbishop Welby said before the vote, “but we will seek for the groups who disagree with the ordination of women as bishops on theological grounds to continue to flourish within the church.”
--Andy
