A committee charged with revising a draft measure that would pave the way for women to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England needs more time to consider the legislation, Bishop Nigel McCulloch of Manchester told General Synod members as they commenced their Feb. 8-12 meeting in London this morning.

McCulloch said the committee, on which he serves, aims to release a comprehensive document with the revised legislation several weeks ahead of synod’s July sessions.

(Editor’s note: Original story predicting report’s findings continues below)

Women bishops could be in place by 2012. Traditionalists warned last night that the decision, to be announced at the General Synod today, will trigger an exodus from the Church of England of many thousands of priests and lay people.The Church of England will go ahead with the plan to create women bishops without giving in to demands from traditionalists for a separate structure of bishops and archbishops untainted by the hands of a woman.

Traditionalists oppose women bishops because they argue that Jesus had no women disciples and that the apostolic succession of bishops, passed down by the laying of hands at ordination, should therefore be male.

Traditionalists warned Monday night that the decision, to be announced at the General Synod on Tuesday, will trigger an exodus from the Church of England of many thousands of priests and lay people.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, will tell the synod at Church House, Westminster, London, that the revision process he is leading is not finished yet, and as a result the debate that was hoped for this month is delayed until July, when the synod meets in York.

But he will also say that attempts to find a way of creating a safe space for traditionalists have failed. These would have provided a church within a church, or what have been dubbed “super flying bishops” to replace the flying bishops that are in place at present to look after opponents of women priests.

The existing three flying bishop posts are to be abolished and not replaced. Instead, any women consecrated bishops will be asked to “delegate” authority to another bishop, such as a suffragan, to carry out confirmations and other episcopal duties in parishes that refuse to accept her ministry.

The historic decision, to be ratified by the synod in July, paves the way for women bishops to be consecrated as soon as 2012, once all parliamentary hurdles have been cleared. Canon Jane Hedges at Westminster Abbey and Canon Lucy Winkett at St Paul’s are among the favourites to be ordained as the first women bishops in the Church of England.

Supporters of women voiced relief at the decision because it means that even where opponents opt for the ministry of the bishop delegated to look after them, there will be no alternative hierarchical structure of oversight that could make it appear as though the mother church of the Anglican Communion was being half-hearted about women bishops, or in any way doubting the integrity of their orders.

It will bring England in line with Canada, New Zealand and the US. Even Scotland and Ireland have voted to have women bishops already and although a woman was shortlisted in Scotland last month, none has yet been consecrated.

Opponents immediately spoke out against the decision. One effect will be to increase the numbers of Anglicans taking up Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to join the new Anglican Ordinariate. Catholics have criticised the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, for saying in an interview last week that those Anglicans who respond to Pope Benedict’s invitation to join the Catholic Church under the provisions of the new Apostolic Constitution, would not be “proper Catholics”.

The Synod’s Catholic Group said it was “deeply disappointed and dismayed” by the Bishop of Manchester’s statement, which it was sent in advance yesterday.

Spokesman Martin Dales, of the York diocese, said: “We believe that the vast majority of ordinary members of the Church of England would not want to see the consecration of women to the episcopate as the trigger for the exclusion from the church of a large number of faithful Anglicans.”

He warned that this is what will now happen. “If the committee refuses to provide an alternative source of episcopal oversight for those who cannot accept the jurisdiction and sacramental ministry of a woman bishop, and General Synod follows the same course, then those who hold to the traditional teaching of the Church must either leave or sacrifice their consciences. We cannot believe that is just or right – not only with respect to those who have reservations about the ordination of women, but for the sake of the mission and unity of the whole of the Church of England.”

He said that Anglican Catholics on the synod would fight the legislation when it comes back to synod in July. “Across the country there are thousands of people who could leave over this, a lot of them irregular worshippers, particularly in rural areas, who just feel they have not been listened to.” He predicted that hundreds of priests would leave.

The Church has been trying to do the impossible and square a circle over the issue, by going ahead with women bishops while creating some form of statutory provision for traditionalists. The revision committee was forced to postpone its plans to address the issue at this week’s meeting after more than 100 submissions were received by the group drafting the legislation.

The General Synod voted two years ago to go ahead with women bishops in a simple measure but leaders of the Church of England have since been struggling to find a way forward that would keep the traditionalist wing on board. Today’s announcement shows their attempts have failed.

Christina Rees of Watch, which supports women bishops, said: “The measure will have aspects of delegation and I welcome that. They have broken through the sound barrier of trying to find something that would work for everyone. they have looked at a huge array of different options. Now they are back on the track that synod asked them to go down last year which is fairly simple legislation which will allow women bishops and which will have certain arrangements for those who are opposed.

“We have gone as far as we can go without making a nonsense of the substantive issue, which is that we have said yes to women bishops. But I would be sorry to see anyone leave the church over women’s ordination. Being able to open the episcopate to women is a call for rejoicing.”

The synod will also debate a motion criticising the BBC for cutting back on religious programming. A contentious debate will be around a motion to recognise the new conservative evangelical Anglican Church in North America, created by traditionalists who have been deposed or broken away in the dispute over gay ordination in the US.

Recognition by the Synod would be no more than symbolic but it would add weight to any formal request from the new church to become an extra province within the structure of the Anglican Communion.

SOURCE: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12065