England Takes Steps To Opening Ordination
Episcopal News Service. December 6, 1984 [84243]
LONDON (DPS, Dec. 6) -- Following a five-hour debate, the General Synod of the Church of England has voted to introduce legislation to allow women to become priests. A motion moved by the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt. Rev. Ronald Bowlby, passed in all houses -- bishops 41-6; clergy 131-98; and laity 135-79.
The vote is the beginning of a complex legal and legislative process which will require Parliamentary approval. It may take until the 1990's before the first women are ordained priest.
The Archbishop of Canterbury told the house that he supported the ordination of women but felt that the time was not yet right for the Church of England to proceed and voted in opposition. The Archbishop of York also felt that the debate was being held prematurely but voted in favor.
The totals seemed to come as a surprise to both opponents of the issue and advocates, with the bishops approving it by 87 percent, the laity 63 percent and the clergy by 57 percent. That is a nearly 20 percent increase in both the Episcopal and clerical orders, although the clergy are still well short of the needed two-thirds for final approval.
Both factions -- led respectively by the Movement for the Ordination of Women and the Church Union -- have already begun planning to influence the choice of delegates to next year's synod, since a change in faces is more likely to produce the needed majorities than a change in position of current delegates.
In spite of the strong feelings, the debate was conducted with what the Church Times characterized as a "noticeably more irenic attitude than had prevailed in the past." This was typified by the main speakers. The motion was presented by Bowlby, whose own diocese had tabled the issue, and the main address against was delivered by Oswald Clark of Southwark who declared, "whatever the outcome of the debate, the bishop and I and our colleagues will be walking together and staying together as friends."