ENGLAND:The (Anglican) Church of England last night voted heavily in favour of assessing how to remove legal restrictions that have prevented women from becoming bishops in the church.
Although the appointment of the first women to the episcopacy is still up to 10 years away, yesterday's decision by the church's general synod, meeting in York, marked what the Bishop of Southwark, proposer of the motion, described as a significant stage in the journey.
Opponents of women's ordination, who have claimed that hundreds of male clergy and some bishops may leave the church if women are promoted to diocesan authority, fought a rearguard action to delay the church's decision but without success.
In a vote of the three houses of the synod, the church's bishop members voted by 41 to six in favour of moving to the next stage, clergy members by 167 to 46 and lay representatives by 159 to 75. Several episcopal opponents of elevating women to bishoprics were absent.
Christina Rees, a senior lay member of the synod and campaigner for women's ordination, said: "It is a brilliant result. The vote showed we are ready to move forward and that in principle our church accepts women as bishops, and that is what we are going to do. Now we are on our way."
The church's general synod is likely to decide its next moves next year.
Last night's vote showed supporters now have the two-thirds majorities needed for a final decision, though a new synod is due to be elected this autumn, so membership will change. After more than 30 years of sometimes palsied debate since the church decided there was no theological objection to the ordination of women, and more than 11 years since the first women became priests, there were still calls yesterday from long-term opponents to delay any further decisions.
Last night's vote, at the end of nearly four hours' debate at the synod in York University, means that the church will now take one further step, to start the process for removing the legal obstacles preventing women from becoming bishops.
That process and the bishops' recommendations will be considered at next year's meeting of the synod.
Proposing the motion, Dr Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, told the synod: "In no way can it be claimed that in seeking at this time to test the mind of the Church of England we act hastily or precipitately . . . Because we are part of the apostolic church we may ordain for ministry those whom we discern God to call." But John Hind, the Bishop of Chichester and an opponent of women's ordination, warned that the move to women bishops would be divisive.
"I want us to continue talking, listening, watching, attending, until God lead us so to understand each other in the light of grace that the decision almost makes itself for us.
"Whatever today's outcome, our own fellowship will be further strained and ecumenical relations compromised. We are in a lose-lose situation."