Riazat Butt reports in more detail about the ABC’s appointment of two new flying bishops to replace the two who fled to Rome.
Groups working towards the ordination of female bishops were disappointed:
Watch, a group campaigning for sexual equality in the church, said the hiring of the Rev Jonathan Baker and the Rev Norman Banks threatened to undermine the authority of female priests.
A statement from the group read: “They will be bishops who do not recognise women as priests, and oppose the appointment of women as bishops.
“The vast majority of people inside and outside the Church of England want to see the church led by women as well as men. The risk of these two appointments is that they will haul us back to a position where women priests and bishops are ‘nearly but not quite’ on a par with their male colleagues.”
The real question is what will happen to these episcopal appointments once the legislation that enables their work expires.
(Archbishop Williams) said they would be a permanent fixture in the Church of England, even though the draft law on women bishops does away with the positions.
At a press conference at Lambeth Palace, Williams said: “I have two new suffragans and General Synod can’t simply take them away. The pastoral need will not go away.”
Read the rest here.