Church of England votes to back women bishops

LONDON - The Church of England voted on Monday to move towards ordaining women bishops, a step which could provoke an exodus of conservative clergy and deepen the widening splits within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A synod meeting in the city of York voted to "remove legal obstacles" in Church law to women bishops, a process Church officials say could take about four years to complete.

All three houses of the synod - the church's parliament - voted in favour. The most senior house, the House of Bishops, voted 41 for and only six against.

Of the 38 member churches in the Anglican Communion, three - in New Zealand, Canada and the United States - have already ordained women bishops.

Bishops play a key role in the hierarchy of Christian churches since they head dioceses and ordain new priests. Opening the episcopate, or community of bishops, to women allows them into the inner sanctum of power in the Church.

But the decision risked putting the Church on a collision course with its conservatives, who defend the all-male clergy by saying Jesus Christ chose only men as his Apostles -- the forerunners of modern bishops.

As the mother church of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, it also risks stiff opposition from sister churches -- especially in the "Global South" -- already up in arms over reforms on homosexuality by liberal "northern" churches.

The Communion, which has 38 member churches, is threatened with schism over decisions by United States Anglicans -- the Episcopal Church -- to ordain a gay male bishop and Canadian Anglicans to bless same-sex unions.

In a recent open letter, 17 bishops opposed to opening their ranks to women urged the synod not to vote on a resolution that would introduce "new divisions" into the Church. The letter prompted scores of protests from women priests.

One of the bishops, Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, told the Sunday Times that he would probably switch to the Roman Catholic Church -- which vigorously defends its all-male clergy -- if his church gave women bishops the green light.

"A woman bishop wouldn't be a bishop because a bishop is someone whose ministry is acceptable through the ages to all other bishops," it quoted him as saying.

"A Church of England with women bishops would no longer have a united episcopate. Bishops would not longer be what they say they are. I would have to leave."

The Church of England now has 108 bishops.

Burnham estimated some 800 priests would leave the Church in protest. About 300 priests and thousands of churchgoers abandoned it in the 1990s to protest against women priests.

The Catholic Church has accepted about 200 married Anglican priests into its clergy in Britain and smaller numbers from Anglican and Protestant churches in other countries.

Traditionalists have suggested the Church create a third province, after Canterbury and York, that would have only male bishops and oversee all Anglicans who would not accept women bishops or the priests they ordain.

There has been no majority for this among bishops.

Women bishops are allowed in 11 other churches, although none have been ordained, while 23 others have no provision for them. Eight member churches refuse to ordain women as priests or deacons.

Women bishops are also allowed in some Protestant churches in Germany and Scandinavia.

- REUTERS