{"id":1228,"date":"2009-02-11T17:31:52","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T17:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo.php"},"modified":"2009-02-11T17:31:52","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T17:31:52","slug":"church-of-england-debates-allo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo","title":{"rendered":"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON – The Church of England’s governing body, seeking to bridge stubborn differences over allowing women to become bishops, was expected to vote Wednesday on a compromise that would let traditionalist parishes be overseen by men.
\nThough bitterly torn over homosexuality, the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion has lived with differences about women as priests and bishops. Within the Church of England, there are sharp differences over women, though past votes indicate that a larger number within the church support female bishops.
\nThe proposal due for a vote by the governing General Synod is designed to allow parishes that reject women’s ministry to be overseen by male bishops.
\nChurch of England officials say it is unlikely that any woman would be consecrated as a bishop before 2014. The church has ordained women as priests since 1994, and nearly half the priests in training now are women.
\nArchbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the Church of England, told synod delegates on Tuesday that differences over the role of women in the church would not go away, and that both sides would have to accept compromise.
\n“All of us – and I do emphatically mean liberals as well as traditionalists – have a bit of us that is in love with purity, that wants to find in the other a perfect echo of ourselves and to be able to present to the world outside a united face,” Williams said.
\n“Traditionalist opponents of women in the episcopate (the office of bishop) have long since acknowledged that it is likely to come and that they must find ways of living with the results; and those who passionately believe it to be right and good for the church’s health have acknowledged that opponents are not going to disappear,” Williams added.
\n“Both have to some extent turned their backs on the fantasy of a church that is ‘pure’ in their own terms, in favor of a church that is honest about its diversity, even when that diversity seems at first embarrassing and unwelcome.”
\nFourteen Anglican churches around the world have authorized women to serve as bishops, though only four have gone ahead to elect one. The Episcopal Church in the United States was the first to have a woman as bishop, in 1989, followed by Anglican bodies in New Zealand, Canada and Cuba. The U.S. Episcopal Church is now led by a woman, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.
\nThe Roman Catholic Church, which admits only men to the priesthood, has warned the Church of England against authorizing female bishops.
\n“Such a decision signifies a breaking away from the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the churches since the first millennium, and therefore is a further obstacle for the reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England,” said a statement in July by Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
\nAssociated Press – February 11, 2009
\nCopyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON – The Church of England’s governing body, seeking to bridge stubborn differences over allowing women to become bishops, was expected to vote Wednesday on a compromise that would let traditionalist parishes be overseen by men. Though bitterly torn over homosexuality, the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion has lived with differences about women as priests…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LONDON – The Church of England’s governing body, seeking to bridge stubborn differences over allowing women to become bishops, was expected to vote Wednesday on a compromise that would let traditionalist parishes be overseen by men. Though bitterly torn over homosexuality, the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion has lived with differences about women as priests…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-11T17:31:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops","og_description":"LONDON – The Church of England’s governing body, seeking to bridge stubborn differences over allowing women to become bishops, was expected to vote Wednesday on a compromise that would let traditionalist parishes be overseen by men. Though bitterly torn over homosexuality, the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion has lived with differences about women as priests…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-02-11T17:31:52+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo","name":"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-11T17:31:52+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-11T17:31:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/02\/church-of-england-debates-allo#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Church of England Debates Allowing Women Bishops"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}