Women bishops issue dominates Church
Updated on 03 July 2008
Church of England General Synod members are gathering later for a five-day meeting likely to be overshadowed by the divisive issue of women bishops.
Traditionalists are expected to clash with campaigners in favour of women bishops in key debates at the meeting of the Church's ruling body at the University of York.
The argument will centre on how far those clergy and parishioners who object to women bishops should have special arrangements such as new "non-geographical" dioceses.
A House of Bishops motion will ask Synod members to back work on a national code of practice to cater for objectors.
Such a move would mean a repeal of legislation allowing parishes to vote against having a woman presiding over services in favour of arrangements set out in the code.
It would also mean ending the Act of Synod which allows for so-called "flying bishops" in the Church of England to minister to opponents of women priests.
Conservative Anglican groups such as Forward in Faith has said that without safeguards such as new dioceses for objectors the Church risks losing more than 1,000 clergy.
The group has released a letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York signed by 1,333 clergymen and women warning they will have to "think very hard" about their futures in the Church if there is no "structural" solution to the problem.
The warning from traditionalists comes as campaigners in favour of women bishops gathered more than 4,000 signatures from Anglican clergy and lay people who oppose special legislation to protect objectors.
Senior women clergy such as Canon Lucy Winkett, precentor of St Paul's Cathedral, and Canon Jane Hedges, Canon Steward of Westminster Abbey, have said they are prepared to wait longer for women bishops rather than see "discriminatory laws" passed to protect others from the oversight of women bishops.
The Synod will also debate other issues such as church tourism and climate change.
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