Nearly half of all licensed female clergy in the Church of England have signed a letter calling for no further delay in the consecration of female bishops in that province and no legal provisions for those opposed to such consecrations.

The letter was sent to all English bishops and follows a report issued last month by the Bishop of Manchester.

That report identified three possible options as the Church of England begins to remove legal restrictions on female bishops. They included the possibility of offering no provisions for conscientious dissenters, informal policies, or a structural change to create a number of special, geographically non-contiguous dioceses. The report noted that if the Church of England’s General Synod sought a structural solution, the third option would be the least disruptive, a conclusion with which the signatories outspokenly disagreed.

“We believe that it should be possible for women to be consecrated as bishops, but not at any price,” the letter states. “The price of legal ‘safeguards’ for those opposed is simply too high, diminishing not just the women concerned, but the catholicity, integrity and mission of the episcopate and of the church as a whole. We cannot countenance any proposal that would, once again, enshrine and formalize discrimination against women in legislation.

“With great regret, we would be prepared to wait longer, rather than see further damage done to the Church of England by passing discriminatory laws,” the letter continued. “We long to see the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England, and believe it is right both in principle and in timing. But because we love the church, we are not willing to assent to a further fracture in our communion and threat to our unity. If it is to be episcopacy for women qualified by legal arrangements to ‘protect’ others from our oversight, then our answer, respectfully, is thank you, but no.”

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