Afternoon:
10°c
Schism threat as Church votes on women bishops
Ellen Widdup1 Jul 2008
The Church of England is at war today amid threats of a schism.
A splinter group, representing about 10 per cent of serving clergy, has said it will leave the Church if women are allowed to become bishops.
It is the latest in a line of factions to denounce changes in the Church, with others voicing concerns over gay clergy and same-sex blessings.
More than 1,300 bishops, priests and deacons have written a letter of protest to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, over the proposals for female bishops.
In it they say: "We will inevitably be asking whether we can, in conscience, continue to minister as bishops, priests and deacons in the Church of England.
"We do not write this in a spirit of making threats or throwing down gauntlets. Rather, we believe the time has come to make our concerns plain."
The crisis could lead to an upheaval in religion in Britain not seen since the Reformation. Dr Williams today tried to address the issues of division, challenging rebel Anglicans and accusing them of lacking legitimacy and authority.
Responding to one group - the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, which has expressed unhappiness with liberal teachings - he said: "If they [the teachings] are not working effectively, the challenge is to renew them rather then improvise solutions that may seem to be effective for some in the short term but create more problems than they solve."
He also rebuked the strict evangelical wing and said it was not free from sin. "On all sides of our controversies, slogans, misrepresentations and caricatures abound, and they need to be challenged," he added.
On Friday the Church's governing body, the General Synod, will meet in York to decide whether legislation to consecrate women should be introduced.
The letter-writers have demanded that if women bishops are allowed, guidelines should be put in place to offer separate parishes to those who wish to worship under the leadership of exclusively male clergy and bishops.
But liberals have raised the stakes, saying they will not back a move to allow female bishops if these conditions are attached. They fear such safeguards would create a "church within a church".
More than 1,250 women clergy, 1,000 male clergy and almost 2,000 lay church members who support women bishops have signed a statement objecting to the prospect of " discriminatory" legislation to safeguard opponents of the idea.
