Crisis in Church of England After Rejection of Female Bishops - NYTimes.com

Crisis in Church of England After Rejection of Female Bishops - NYTimes.com

Crisis in Church of England After Rejection of Female Bishops

By ALAN COWELL and JOHN F. BURNS Published: November 21, 2012 133 Comments

LONDON — In a sign of deepening crisis in the Church of England after it rejected the appointment of women as bishops, its spiritual leader said on Wednesday that the church had “undoubtedly lost a measure of credibility” and had a “lot of explaining to do” to people who found its deliberations opaque.

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Marie-Elsa Bragg after a Church of England synod on Tuesday voted down a change to allow female bishops.

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, was speaking after an emergency meeting of bishops called to debate Tuesday’s narrow balloting by its General Synod rejecting the ordination of women as bishops, even though female priests account for one-third of the Church of England’s clergy members. Female priests hold senior positions like canon and archdeacon, and some had been hoping to secure appointments as bishops by 2014 if the change had been approved.

The vote represented a direct rebuff to Archbishop Williams’s reformist efforts during his 10 years as head of the church and a huge setback to a campaign for change that has been debated intensely and often bitterly for the past decade.

More than 70 percent of the 446 synod votes on Tuesday were in favor of opening the church’s episcopacy to women. But the synod’s voting procedures require a two-thirds majority in each of its three “houses”: bishops, clergy and laity. The bishops approved the change by 44 to 3, and the clergy by 148 to 45. The vote among the laity, though, was 132 to 74, six votes less than the two-thirds needed.

The Church of England is the so-called established church, meaning that it is recognized by law as representing the official religion, enjoys special privileges and is supported by the civil authorities.

Some lawmakers suggested on Wednesday that the synod vote would create a crisis of church-state relations, since the rejection of female bishops contradicted national laws on gender equality. Prime Minister David Cameron, already at loggerheads with the church over the government’s plans to legalize same-sex marriage next year, urged church authorities on Wednesday to devise a way out of the impasse.

“I’m very clear the time is right for women bishops; it was right many years ago,” he told Parliament on Wednesday. “They need to get on with it, as it were, and get with the program. But you do have to respect the individual institutions and the way they work while giving them a sharp prod.”

Addressing the synod on Wednesday in unusually unambiguous language, Archbishop Williams declared, “We have, to put it very bluntly, a lot of explaining to do.”

“Whatever the motivation for voting yesterday, whatever the theological principle on which people acted and spoke, the fact remains that a great deal of this discussion is not intelligible to our wider society.

“Worse than that, it seems as if we are willfully blind to some of the trends and priorities of that wider society,” he added, acknowledging criticism from within that the church — already facing dwindling congregations — has lost a broader relevance to modern society.

“We have, as a result of yesterday, undoubtedly lost a measure of credibility in our society,” he said.

The archbishop is to retire next month after spending much of his time devising complex compromises intended to prevent a schism between reformers and traditionalists.

The archbishop has already acknowledged failing to accomplish a lasting reconciliation, but the vote on Tuesday robbed him of a final opportunity to salvage something of a legacy.

“Very grim day,” Justin Welby, bishop of Durham and the archbishop’s recently appointed successor, said in a Twitter message overnight. “Most of all for women priests and supporters, need to surround all with prayer & love and cooperate with our healing God.”

Both Archbishop Williams and Bishop Welby support women as bishops. The vote on Tuesday left Bishop Welby set to preside over a church seemingly unable to resolve an issue that is one of several contentious debates relating to gender and sexuality.

The vote appeared to require reformers to begin the debate within the church all over again, with procedures that, if unamended, could delay another vote until 2019. The reaction among reformers was vociferous, and often angry, with some talking of breaking with the church. Many traditionalists had made similar threats if they were outvoted, some saying that they would consider quitting the Anglican fold and, along with other Anglo-Catholics, join the Roman Catholic Church, which has adopted measures to encourage a shift of allegiance, including provisions that allow married Anglican ministers to serve as Catholic priests.