Anglicans take the plunge for women bishops

I didn’t think they had in them. The Church of England synod has actually voted in favour of appointing women bishops. But the very Anglican compromise devised by the senior hierarchy to prevent a split, the appointment of male super bishops for the thousands who can’t stomach women in episcopal authority failed. A pity, I think.The earlier idea of flying bishops for opponents of women priests was allowing the old peculiars to wither quietly on the vine. Never mind: there’s always another chance for another vote in the good old Cof E and super bishops might pass next year after the legislation is drafted. The Church of England will survive.

Why can’t I get the idea out of my head of Clark Kent’s alter ego and Batman and Robin soaring skywards in mitres?

P.S. The Vatican, in fairly hard-line language for them have just said: “We learned with regret the news of the vote of the Church of England that opens the way to the introduction of legislation that would lead to the ordination of women bishops.”

The decision will be “a new obstacle to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England,” a statement added.

Now there’s a surprise! More on possible implications below the fold.
The dissidents who secretly went to Rome to ask the Pope’s former Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith what if any new relationship could be patched up with them must truly be desperate. Talk about the lion’s den. Any chance of recognising the Anglican orders of a church in turmoil, your eminences? Sure gentlemen, come right in. I don’t see it somehow. Meanwhile Alan Harper, C of I Abp of Armagh warns that the junior branch of Anglicanism in these islands may have to admit that homosexuality may be natural after all. Nice to see our branch of a dividing Church catching up with reality. If not before time.

More on P.S. Vatican statement If C of E traditionalists decide to go over to Rome, what about the future for all those millions of Catholics who support clerical marriage and women priests and bishops? See report of latest clamp down in the New York Times.

If this hard line persists, why not join another church, the Anglicans, who pray every day for ” one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church?” Like the new Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, a former Catholic priest now married, who joined the Church of Ireland which has allowed women priests and bishops since the 1990s (but hasn’t turned up a woman bishop yet).