Female bishops could become reality as Church of England synod meets

Campaigners hope latest proposals can end 20 years of conflict and clear way for women to become bishops from 2014

The Guardian, Sam Jones, Sunday 17 November 2013

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The Church of England is under huge
pressure to introduce female bishops. Photograph: Dai Kurokawa/EPA

Campaigners for female bishops are optimistic that the latest effort to bring women into the episcopate will find favour with the Church of England general synod when it meets in London this week, heralding a possible end to two decades of bitter and damaging conflict.

The church has been under public and political pressure to introduce female bishops since the synod rejected previous legislation by just six votes almost exactly a year ago. Its failure to resolve the issue was described by the church's most senior civil servant as a "train crash", while David Cameron warned that the church needed "to get on with it".

The latest proposals – produced by a 15-strong steering committee which included five synod members who voted against last November's legislation – appear to have won widespread acceptance even among some groups that firmly opposed previous moves.

Among the new recommendations, which have been praised for their clarity and brevity, is the creation of an NHS-style ombudsman who would be able to rule on any complaints from traditionalists who are against women bishops. If the package is approved by the synod on Wednesday and a draft declaration is endorsed at next February's meeting, final approval for women to become Church of England bishops could be given in November 2014.

Christina Rees, a member of the archbishops' council and a prominent campaigner for female bishops, said: "I'm feeling incredibly optimistic. Almost a year ago to the day – on 20 November – we had the disastrous debate that ended with the legislation missing by six votes. That was a real low point." Rees said that the steering group's report showed the church was growing less divided on the issue after years of infighting.

"I'm more hopeful than I've been in quite some time because to me there is a different tone in the report from the steering committee," she said. "There is the sense that for the first time, genuinely, we're all in this together and that we can and we will find a way forward."

Rees said she was also encouraged by last week's statement from the Anglo-Catholic group Forward in Faith, in which it urged its members to back the new plans. "Though these proposals are still far from what we have long said would be ideal, we believe that they may have the potential to provide workable arrangements for the future," said its chair, the Rt Rev Jonathan Baker, bishop of Fulham.

While acknowledging that some of the group's members would ultimately find themselves unable to vote in favour of female bishops should the synod take a final vote on the matter in a year's time, he said the proposals nonetheless held out "the possibility of bringing to a conclusion a process that for too long has been a distraction from the church's mission".

The Rev Anne Stevens, a member of Women and the Church (Watch), which campaigns for female bishops, told BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme that she was also confident the new plans would break the impasse. "Everybody was looking to find a way through the wreckage of last November's vote in the general synod and it does seem that because of the work that's been done in the last 12 months that we have come up now with a set of proposals that the vast majority of people will be able to live with," she said.

Others were more cautious. Susie Leafe, director of the conservative evangelical group Reform, who was part of the steering committee but abstained from commending its report to the synod, said it remained to be seen how workable the new recommendations would be when they came before the synod.

"Just as Forward in Faith have reservations – and there are some important things they need to have dealt with before they'll be able to sign up wholeheartedly to these propositions – so [does] Reform," she said. "But we're going there to listen to what people are saying and to discover whether there is a way forward."

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There is a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”


Kryon Q&A

Question: With all the turmoil that is going on in the catholic church right now, along with other religions in the past, where do you see organized religion’s place in the coming years?

Answer: Remember this: the turmoil you speak of was foretold in our writings over two year ago:

“Belief systems all over your planet will tear apart with change. Oh, they will remain, but there can be no more fence-sitting in regard to the old ways that no longer work. Those who talk about the love of God but who do not practice it are on a fence, are they not? … The world is beginning to hold them accountable for what they teach.” (Kryon Book 8 – Passing the Marker – 2000 – page 225)

So what you are seeing is right on target. These systems are not on their way out, rather they are in the process of rebuilding the trust of those who follow them. There will always be a need for organized religion. What is happening, however, is that organized religion must (and will) change to meet a more spiritual and discerning Humanity.

Bless this organization, that it will prosper and continue to serve and help humanity the way it was set up to do. See it with a new integrity. The new leader... one who you will know shortly... will have an interesting job, and he will not be able to sit on a fence any longer.

— Kryon