Path cleared for women bishops in Church of England to receive final vote in July

The Church of England today voted overwhelmingly to fast track legislation to ordain women bishops, opting to halve the amount of time that individual dioceses have to debate the proposals.

Today’s vote to temporarily suspend the rules that give dioceses six months of consultation passed with 358 votes to 39, with nine abstentions.

Under the revised procedure, which was drafted by the House of Bishops to accompany the latest form of the legislation, dioceses now have just three months to debate, which means that the final General Synod vote will take place in July rather than November.

Thus if Synod backs the women bishops legislation when it next meets in July, the first candidates could be appointed by Christmas.