In a highly-charged debate at the General Synod, the Church’s parliament, members rejected a compromise deal put forward by the archbishops of Canterbury and York which would have averted a schism.

The archbishops’ plans would have seen the creation of a new class of male-only bishops to look after conservative evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes opposed to female leadership in the Church.

Canon David Houlding, a prebendary at St Paul’s cathedral, estimated that as many as 200 traditionalist clergy could leave the Church, taking thousands of worshippers with them.

“….The vote was a severe blow to the archbishop [of Canterbury] and it has pushed us closer to the door.”

A group of 70 traditionalist clergy met with a Catholic bishop on Saturday to discuss plans to defect to the Roman Catholic Church…[Also facing disenfranchisement are evangelicals who would not go to Rome, but would leave for other destinationis.]

Dr John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, told the Daily Telegraph he was disappointed the last-ditch compromise plan had failed. “We must be magnanimous and meet people half-way,” he said…

He called on the Church to “start behaving like Christians”, but refused to contemplate an exodus of clergy, describing himself as “a prisoner of hope”.

The Synod will continue to debate the issue of women bishops today as the Church continues to search for a way to prevent a split. [The Aquila Report will seek to post news as soon as it is received.]

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article is inaccessible and has been removed.]