From Inclusive Church:
Inclusive Church is deeply disturbed by the recent announcement of the Revision Committee. It has moved away from the expressed will of General Synod in July 2008 – that there should be legislation to consecrate women as bishops on the same terms as men with an additional code of practice containing arrangements for those who do not accept the authority of bishops who are women.
Their decision reflects a further undermining of the Anglican understanding of the role of the Bishop as the pastor of, and focus of unity in the Diocese. If implemented it will inevitably create a two-tier institution with little prospect of long-term unity.The impact of this on those within and outside the church will be immense. The bias shown against women in this proposal will mean that the church continues to be seen as institutionally discriminatory towards them. The impression given is of an organisation which perpetuates injustice, undermining its ability to witness to Christ in the world. It ignores the considerable gifts ordained women have to offer within the Episcopate. Men and women should be present on the same terms.
We urge the Revision Committee to reconsider its decision and prepare legislation, as it was requested, to open the Episcopate to women with a national code of practice to be drafted separately.
Thinking Anglicans is also featuring an excellent paper from WATCH written in 1997 by Judith Maltby. It concludes:
We need to decouple the notion of a secure place for the opponents of the ordination of women from the Act. Many provisions were made for them in the 1992 Measure – provisions that were widely exposed to the scrutiny of the larger Church. We need to decouple the Act from the principle of comprehensiveness – for no other issue, issues as much a
matter of conscience as the ordination of women, is provision of its kind made. If the ordination of women is still in ‘reception’ then surely Flying Bishops are too.