Although women can serve as deacons and priests in Anglican churches, they are still fighting for ordination into the highest echelons of the clergy. Many from the more liberal side of the Communion have insisted that the law should change to allow women to be ordained as bishops, but conservatives maintain that Christ’s disciples were all men, which is an example they should follow.

Rowan Williams, the head of the Anglican Communion, is making one final push for the ordination of women bishops before he officially retires from his position as the Archbishop of Canterbury in December.

“No-one is likely to underrate the significance of November’s debate on women bishops in General Synod,” Williams wrote in an article for the Church Times published on Friday [Oct. 19]. “It will shape the character of the Church of England for generations – and I’m not talking only about the decision we shall take, but about the way in which we discuss it and deal with the outcome of it.”

Although women can serve as deacons and priests in Anglican churches, they are still fighting for ordination into the highest echelons of the clergy. Many from the more liberal side of the Communion have insisted that the law should change to allow women to be ordained as bishops, but conservatives maintain that Christ’s disciples were all men, which is an example they should follow.

Williams, who for the last decade has been trying to rally the undecided vote in favor of women bishops, explained in his written piece that for Anglicans, the one and only true priesthood is Jesus Christ.

“To recall the Church to its true character in this connection, God calls individuals to gather the community, animate its worship and preside at its sacramental acts, where we learn afresh who we are,” he wrote. “The priestly calling of all who are in Christ is thus focused in particular lives lived in service to the community and its well-being, integrity and holiness – lives that express in visible and symbolic terms the calling of a ‘priestly people.'”

As for accusations that he is giving into liberal ideals, like feminism, Williams explained that he is working within the understandings of the early Christian Church – and while feminists might have pushed for the ordination of women bishops, they were not the driving factor in the debate.

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