Press opinion and comment on women bishops

As usual, Thinking Anglicans is on top of things.


Simon Sarmiento has two fresh roundups of British press comment and opinion.

George Pitcher

The Archbishop of Canterbury has had a good Synod. He mentioned gays in his sermon in the Minster on Sunday and, apart from the odd twitching white perm in front of me, not only got away with it but had them weeping in the aisles (and the transepts).

Yesterday he produced a bravura performance in the chamber, managing to sound concurrently firm, sensitive and a liberal traditionalist. This was not because he was being disingenuous. He really is all those things at the same time.

Giles Fraser

The job description of bishops, [the Bishop of Liverpool] argued, was to feed the body of Christ. And yet, before the body of Christ became a metaphor for the people of God, it was a women that feed Christ’s physical body and looked after him. Here was the Biblical argument for women bishops. Indeed – on this argument – the very first bishop was a woman. It proved the vital speech.

Telegraph editorial

Women bishops will be consecrated and there seems little point in establishing another legislative half-way house in which traditionalists can feel comfortable. Further equivocation and navel-gazing would be a disaster for the Church.

The Guardian

You only have to think about the consequences inside and outside the church if the synod had done anything else to recognise that, however painful this may be for some, it was the only serious outcome.

The Times

Despite the tears and prayers of those who fought for compromise, the need for clarity was greater.

Addendum: Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet

Codes of practice are shifting sands. The sacramental life of the Church must be built on rock. How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made for our inclusion has been turned down flat?

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