The Church of England is expected to pave the way for the consecration of women bishops when it publishes final proposals this week.The legislation, to be debated by the General Synod in July, will trigger a departure of some traditionalists to the Roman Catholic Church.
Sources told The Times that the legislation for women bishops would include no statutory provision for opponents.
Instead, arrangements to allow traditionalist parishes to opt out of the oversight of a woman bishop are expected to be included in a voluntary code of practice.
This will not be enough to placate a small number of leading Anglo-Catholics who fear that female bishops will “taint” the historic catholicity of the Church of England.
The proposed legislation is to be sent to members of the synod on Friday.
Three Anglo-Catholic bishops in the Church of England, including the Bishop of Fulham, the Right Rev John Broadhurst, met advisers of the Pope in Rome last week to discuss setting up an “Ordinariate” in England under the scheme announced by Benedict XVI for disaffected Anglicans.
The number who leave is not expected to be as great as had been feared. A recent conference at Pusey House, Oxford, on the Pope’s offer, regarded as “sheep-stealing” by some Anglicans, was told that traditionalists who sought communion with Rome were as likely to choose the usual route of full conversion as go to the Ordinariate.
The Rev Philip North, Team Rector of Old St Pancras, London, told the conference that the opportunities for mission would be reduced in the Ordinariate because “we have the furniture of the Church of England”, which occupied a legal and cultural role.
This was part of the nation’s self-understanding, responsible for whole communities.
According to the Church Times, clergy in the Ordinariate would have to be in secular employment because the Roman Catholic Church could not raise the money — £64,000 in the case of Father North in London — to keep them in a house and stipend. Father North said that the Ordinariate could become irrelevant: “If we reach a point where staying is not an option, then traditional conversion is far more likely to offer the kind of enrichment and ministry that we know now.”
The success of the Ordinariate will depend on what happens as the legislation is debated and amended. Key to the process will be the code of practice to cater for opponents to women bishops. It will be voluntary but will have considerable “moral” force.
Although it will not go as far as many want, a code of practice is likely to keep most Anglo-Catholics within the Church of England, given that if they left they would have to find secular employment to give them an income, as well as find a home for themselves, and their family if married.
Many Anglo-Catholics minister in areas of London such as Fulham and Kensington where property prices are high. At present they enjoy large vicarages and rectories, courtesy of the established Church.
A source told The Times that, even though the code of practice would not come under statutory provision, the top 10 or 12 women being spoken of as future bishops in church circles had already resolved privately to do their utmost to keep traditionalists happy by facilitating the woman-free oversight.
Christina Rees, an adviser to the lobby group Women and the Church, said: “I really hope this is draft legislation we can go ahead with. If they have got the shape of it right, I hope we will avoid a lot of amendments that would force us to start the whole process over again.”
To succeed at the synod in July, the legislation to consecrate women bishops must be passed by a simple majority by bishops, clergy and laity.
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