England church backs women bishops

Source: MSNBC

England church backs women bishops
Move risks split in Church of England as some traditionalists oppose idea

updated 4:37 a.m. ET July 8, 2008
LONDON - The Church of England's ruling body voted its support Monday for women to become bishops, a move that risks further division because it lacked accommodation for traditionalists opposed to the idea.

The decision after hours of debate among leaders of the British church came even as the Anglican church worldwide wrestles with the more contentious issues of a gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex marriages.

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More than a dozen other Anglican churches around the world have authorized women to serve as bishops. The Episcopal church, the Anglican body in the U.S., is led by a woman, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Hundreds of traditionalists have threatened to leave the British church if sufficient safeguards were not put into place for those who objected. Advocates of women in the episcopate had argued that any concessions would effectively make women second-class bishops.

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Church of England officials say it is unlikely that any woman would be consecrated as a bishop before 2014. The church has ordained women as priests since 1994, but hasn't allowed them to become bishops.

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Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25579966/

:applause: :applause: :applause:

What's holding them back?

All sorts of loudmouths threatened to leave; only a small percentage did.

The Catholic Church is in the grip of a male gerontocracy with no apparent way out! It's us and the Mormons!

And many conservative Catholics follow the Anglican Church very closely (often to make snide remarks about falling apart or something). Yet they do it because that is what they see the direction of the world moving to and they are scared to the core and the only way to deal with it is to shut it out. The same thing is happening to conservative Anglicans, but in the end it is not about theology but maintaining temporal power structures (often many big moneyed interests behind conservative religious movements).

Even the Catholic Church with all the internal wailing, will have to face the march of history, evolve or be left in the dust.

in the process! For example, my people-centered Vatican II parish is being destroyed by being absorbed into a priest-centered parish. I believe we will see a reform in the priesthood within 5-10 years, but in the meantime everything we've built here will be lost.