In a last-ditch attempt by traditionalists to scupper a debate at the General Synod this month, 17 bishops have given warning that women bishops would be deeply divisive. The protesters include the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, an evangelical theologian who is the fourth most senior bishop in the Church and whose views are widely respected.

Other signatories to a letter, published in today’s Church of England Newspaper, include the Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, the Bishop of Exeter, the Right Rev Michael Langrish, and the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Rev John Hind.

One senior source, who has been involved with the women’s ordination debate for decades, said: “I am spitting tacks about this letter. What is so disingenuous about it is that we effectively decided to have women bishops when we voted for women priests.

“This letter will have an enormous impact. It will bring out into the open what many of us feared — that there is a loss of nerve in the house of bishops. Even some bishops who are naturally in favour believe the time is not now right, and this is hugely disappointing for us.”

Even if the Church goes ahead with women bishops after it is debated at the synod on July 11 at York University, no woman is likely to be ordained before Easter 2010.

But the 17 bishops want the process delayed even further to allow more time for debate. This has outraged campaigners for women’s ordination. As long ago as 1975, the synod voted that there was no fundamental objection to women’s ordination.

When the synod voted to ordain women priests in 1992, even some traditionalists believed that it made theological nonsense to hold out on women bishops. But the bishops, who will use their authority to attempt to sway the synod, believe that women bishops could threaten the Church’s fragile unity. The Anglican Communion has been brought to the brink of schism by the debate over gay blessings and ordinations.

Of the thirty-eight Anglican provinces, three have women bishops. A further eleven, including Scotland, Ireland and Sudan, have voted for women bishops but have yet to appoint any. The position of the Church of England as the “mother” church of the communion means that any decision in England on a controversial issue such as women priests has a greater impact.

In their letter the bishops pray “that new divisions be not forced upon the Church of England, and that the episcopal ministry may continue to be the (albeit imperfect) ministry of unity our Church has hitherto maintained”.

Of the seventeen bishops, just seven are members of the “house of bishops” on the synod. The house is made up of 44 diocesan and 10 suffragan bishops. Fifty more suffragan bishops are not on the synod. The synod will be asked by the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev Dr Tom Butler, to “consider that the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate should now be set in train”.

After the synod voted overwhelmingly in November to welcome a report by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, setting out the theological pros and cons of women bishops, it had been widely assumed that women bishops were inevitable.

A Church of England spokesman said that the debate was difficult to predict. “Until we get to the debate, it is going to be hard to know what the strength of feeling is.”

Christina Rees, the chairman of Watch (Women and the Church), called the bishops’ letter an insult to the thousands of women priests. She refuted the claim that the Church had not had a proper debate on the issue and said that the overwhelming majority wanted women bishops.

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