Further Action Over Women Bishops The present situation is unsustainable


The House of Bishops of the Church of England met in December and considered the implications of the General Synod's recent rejection of legislation to enable women to become bishops. The Bishops had the benefit of participation in their discussion of the several leading female clergy who had been involved in drafting the legislation.


The Bishops expressed their ongoing gratitude and appreciation for the ministry


of ordained women in the Church of England, and their sadness that recent events should have left so many feeling undermined and undervalued. Effective response to this situation is a priority on which all are strongly agreed.


The Bishops acknowledged the profound and widespread sense of anger, grief,


and disappointment felt by so many in the Church of England and beyond, and agreed that the present situation was unsustainable for all, whatever their convictions. They expressed their continuing commitment to enabling women to be consecrated as bishops, and intend to have fresh proposals to put before the General Synod at its next meeting in July.


The House of Bishops will be organising an event early in 2013 at which it will


share with a larger number of lay and ordained women - in the context of prayer and reflection - questions about the culture of the House of Bishops’ processes and discussions, and how women might more regularly contribute.


The next steps need to be taken as a matter of great urgency In order to avoid delay in preparing new legislative proposals, the Bishops have


set up a working group drawn from all three houses of Synod. This group will arrange facilitated discussions with a wide range of people of a variety of views in the week of February 4th, when General Synod was to have met.


The Bishops will have an additional meeting in February immediately after these


discussions, and they expect to settle at their May meeting the elements of a new legislative package to come to Synod in July.


For any such proposals to command assent, the House of Bishops believes that


they will need (i) greater simplicity, (ii) a clear embodiment of the principle articulated by the 1998 Lambeth Conference "that those who dissent from as well as those who assent to, the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate are both loyal Anglicans", (iii) a broadly-based measure of agreement about the shape of the legislation in advance of the beginning of the actual legislative process. These concerns will be the focus of the working group in the months ahead.


The Bishops endorsed the view of the Archbishops' Council that the "Church of


England now has to resolve this issue through its own processes as a matter of great urgency".


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