The General Synod of the Church of England has approved legislation that will allow women to be appointed bishops. The Huffington Post has a brief story, and we will be updating it as the day goes on.
The BBC has also filed a story.
Here is Andrew Brown’s coverage in The Guardian.
John Bingham of The Telegraph writes of the long campaign to have women ordained as deacons, priests and bishops:
The issue of the ordination of women priests was first put on the agenda of the 1920 Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world, but delegates voted against taking discussion the matter any further.
A fresh attempt was made a decade later with the same effect, and a special commission later published a report ruling the possibility out.
It was not until during the Second World War when Bishop Ronald Hall of Hong Kong broke ranks ordained a Chinese Deacon, Florence Li Tim-Oi, as a priest – that the first worldwide Anglican Church had its first women priest.