Attempts to heal a damaging split over women bishops in the Church of England have faltered after bishops could not agree on a compromise deal.It was widely expected that plans to appoint women bishops, backed by the liberal and conservative wings of the Church, would be presented to the General Synod next month.
But when bishops met behind closed doors to thrash out proposals, there were heated exchanges and no final decision could be reached. It means that the Church is back at square one on the issue.
Campaigners for women bishops are growing increasingly frustrated over the delays.Christina Rees, the chairman of Women and the Church, said that it was unacceptable that "a handful of bishops" are preventing the legislation moving forward.
"The length of time it is taking has been excruciatingly slow. They seem to be going over old ground and looking backwards, but I believe that the pressure is growing on them and they can't continue to drag their heels."
One bishop suggested that some of his colleagues are deliberately procrastinating. "Some of them are clearly hoping that this will drag on until they can retire," he said.
"Some of the discussions were heated, but they were honest if somewhat inconclusive. It seems to have taken a long time to get to what's blindingly obvious - that we will have women bishops. The Church will survive this and won't fall apart completely."
He said that a number of them were "taking refuge" in comments made by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Vatican's Council for Christian Unity, who said that women bishops would cause a "serious and long-lasting chill" between the two Churches.
Traditionalists who refuse to accept that women can be ordained say they will defect to the Roman Catholic Church if they are not given an enclave free of female clergy.
They also said that the move would damage its relations with the Catholic Church, making unity "unreachable" and shared Communion impossible.
However, bishops who support women being promoted to the top ranks within the Church hierarchy argued that they must find a solution that does not undermine the ministry of female clergy.
Women were admitted to the priesthood for the first time in 1994, two years after the crucial legislation was passed, but the Church is struggling to reach a compromise that would allow them to become bishops, despite agreeing to begin the process in 2005.
Plans aimed at averting a split were thrown out by the Church's General Synod in 2006. A new group, chaired by the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, was set up in 2006, but has failed to reach any conclusions in the past 18 months.
It was hoped that private meetings between the bishops at Hinsley Hall in Leeds earlier this month would reach a compromise deal but instead the issue remained unresolved.
The Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, said that the Church needed to make women bishops as soon as possible.
"There is no doubt that the House of Bishops contains a variety of views on the issue," he said.
"However, it's clear that a sizeable majority in the Church want to have women bishops and it's important that we don't put it on hold."
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