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Women in the Episcopate? An Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue

10 April 2008

 

The House of Bishops’ Theological Group and the Faith and Order Advisory Group have produced a set of reflections on the address given in 2006 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to the Bishops of the Church of England on the proposal to ordain women as bishops.

‘The aim of this paper is twofold,’ says the introduction to Women in the Episcopate? An Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue. ‘It is intended to provide a resource that will enable the Cardinal’s address and the responses to it to be given proper weight in the continuing debate within the Church of England on the subject of the ordination of women to the episcopate and also to contribute to a continued growth in understanding between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in view of their mutual commitment to “complete communion of faith and sacramental life.”

‘It needs to be noted,’ the introduction continues, ‘that this paper describes a diversity of views about the Cardinal’s address, some of which are in tension with each other. The paper does not seek to resolve these tensions. It seeks instead to depict the diversity of views about the address as accurately as possible without endorsing any particular point of view.’

In July 2006, the General Synod passed two motions after debate on the ordination of women to the episcopate. The first motion affirmed the view that admitting women to the episcopate ‘would be a proper development’. With the second motion, the Synod voted to establish a legislative drafting group. That group, chaired by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, hopes to be able to publish its report soon for consideration by the House of Bishops in May and by the General Synod in July. Synod will need to take decisions on options arising from the report before any draft legislation can be introduced. Whatever the shape of any future legislation, it will have to go through the various Synodical stages, including, before final approval, a formal reference to all 44 diocesan synods. Even if key policy issues are resolved this July, it will be some years before women bishops could be consecrated in the Church of England.

Copies of the report are available, priced £10, from Church House Bookshop, Westminster.