Eleven years after the first women were ordained to the priesthood, the General Synod of the Church of England voted Feb. 16 to begin the process toward opening the episcopate to them.

After four and half hours of theological and political debate, synod voted by a strong majority to decide at its next session in July whether to enact legislation permitting female bishops. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams agreed to appoint a committee of four, chaired by Bishop Christopher Hill of Guildford, to present options to synod in July.

Under the proposed timetable, the Church could have its first female bishop within 10 years. Legislation permitting women bishops must receive a two-thirds majority in General Synod and be approved by Parliament.

Supporters of female bishops argued that opening the episcopate to women was both a matter of social justice and would make the Church culturally relevant, drawing new members that could arrest a 25 percent decline in attendance over the past 10 years.

Opponents argued the introduction of female bishops would be “cataclysmic,” damaging ecumenical relations and dividing an already weakened Church.

The theological arguments put forward displayed little rancor or personal animus towards partisans of either side. The Rev. Jonathan Baker (Oxford), leader of the Catholic Group in synod, noted the “Fatherhood of God is part of the word of God about God” and is reflected in the roles given by God to his creation. Sr. Mary Angela, CSWG (religious communities), concurred, noting the best role model for women was the Virgin Mary and that consecrating women as bishops blurs the distinctions between the sexes in economy of creation.

Lady Jane Booth-Gore (Durham) argued that the Church of England had no authority to alter catholic order while Rome and the Orthodox were opposed. To act unilaterally would undermine the Church’s claim to be part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, she said. Bishop Geoffrey Rowell of Europe asked synod to consider the ecumenical implications with Rome and the Orthodox of women, saying it would further test bonds of affection already weakened by the consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire.

Anne Foreman (Rochester) argued that it was a matter of social justice that women be consecrated to the episcopate. “If we are to fulfill our mission” to evangelize England, “not having women bishops makes no sense.” The Rev. Paul Collier (Southwark) said the inferences of an all-male episcopate from nature were not persuasive. “We cannot assume that what seems self-evident is in fact the will of God,” adding society did not understand the Church’s reluctance to provide full equality to women in the Church.

Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham drew upon scripture to support women bishops, saying the epistles of Paul, Luke’s gospel, and Acts defined apostles as witnesses to the resurrection. As women were the first witnesses to the resurrection, they were the “apostles to the apostles.” “Apostolicity was something [the 12] shared with women.”

Elaine Storkey (London) rejected the inference that biological differences must be spiritualized, adding the Virgin Mary could not possibly serve as a roll model because women could not be both “virgins and mothers.” The Archbishop of Canterbury agreed, disputing the notion the fatherhood of God necessitated a male episcopate.

“In scripture we are told that every fatherhood is named from God the Father, and not the other way round,” Archbishop Williams said. “That is to say we are told that when Christians speak of God as Father, they are not speaking of God as a supreme instance of something we are all familiar with. They are speaking of a fatherhood whose definition is given in and through the telling of the story of the incarnate Son’s relation with the one to whom he prays, Abba, Father.”

This discounts, he claimed, “the priority and irreversibility of the language of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are involved in this question, in relation to a bishop’s fatherly role.”

While the debate was brisk, morale among opponents of women bishops seemed poor. The mood at the Catholic Group’s dinner following the vote was less one of anger than resigned inevitability. Passage the previous day of proposals to scrap the parsons’ freehold (the 1,000-year-old custom whereby ownership of parish property was vested in the clergy) in favor of “common tenure” sapped the fight from opponents of female bishops.

By removing the parsons’ freehold, traditionalists feared that control of parish property would pass from parishes to bishops, effectively killing any wholesale move toward creating a “third province” of congregations opposed to female bishops. More than 1,000 English parishes have adopted resolutions saying they would not accept female rectors.

(The Rev.) George Conger