Forward in Faith, which represents traditionalist Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England, has written to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York warning them that many of its members could "defect" if women bishops were introduced without adequate safeguards.The letter was signed by 1,333 clergy, and the issue comes before the General Synod later this month.
They want to be allowed one or more separate dioceses - headed, of course, by a male bishop -so that now or in the future they would not find themselves under the authority of a female bishop. Meanwhile a similarly sized group of female clergy has demanded the opposite, saying any arrangement that was discriminatory, such as a diocese or two reserved for male bishops, was unacceptable to them.
They would prefer to leave things as they are rather than accept appointments as women bishops on those terms.
The Church of England already allows clergy or parishes that reject female priesthood to resort to the episcopal ministry of a separate bishop, a so-called "flying bishop" who refuses to ordain women.
The theology of episcopacy that allowed flying bishops was never very clear, and the theological justification for separate dioceses even less so.
In any event, given that the ministry of a priest is theologically derived from the ministry of a bishop, the decision to allow women priests but not women bishops in 1992 was already anomalous.
These are internal Anglican matters. But the implication of the unfortunate word "defect" in the Forward in Faith warning is that many of the signatories are threatening to become Catholics, as indeed some Anglican clergy did after 1992.
Similar issues are raised. If they intend it as their future spiritual home, it is not particularly complimentary to the Catholic Church to treat it as a refugee camp, just over the ecclesiastical border as it were, for disgruntled Anglicans.
The issue of female bishops may or may not be sufficient reason for leaving the Church of England, on the grounds that it has thereby betrayed that Church's history and tradition. That does not automatically make Rome's claims true. Indeed if those claims are true after a decision by the General Synod to allow women bishops, they were true before it.
Many of the signatories are undoubtedly sincerely wrestling with their consciences, and questioning whether their Anglo-Catholic assumption that the Church of England was part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Creed refers, is valid after all.
Henry VIII's breach with Rome had not so far presented such a problem to them, although they may start to see it in a new light. By and large the influx of ex-Anglican clergy after 1992 was warmly welcomed by the Catholic community, which turned out to have no real problem with those who were subsequently ordained into the Catholic priesthood despite being married.
But as was pointed out to the convert clergy at the time by the late Cardinal Basil Hume, the move had to be a positive one, not just a flight from women priests (and, now, from bishops).
And it cannot be completely ruled out that one day the Catholic Church might decide it could itself ordain women.
(Many Catholics wish it would.)
Submission to Rome works both ways.
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