Little by Little

So the Church of England's General Synod has come that much closer to having women bishops. According to Ruth Gledhill of the Times (over at the Lead),

'The Church of England decided tonight to ordain women bishops with minimal concessions to protect opponents, despite the threat of a mass exodus of traditionalist clergy.

'The bishops voted in favour of bringing forward legislation to ordain women bishops by 28 to 12. The clergy voted in favour by 124 to 44 and the Laity by 111 to 68.

'A proposal for “super bishops” for objectors to women bishops, in the same way that “flying bishops” care for church-goers against women priests, was narrowly defeated at the York meeting of the General Synod.'

Those are substantial margins.

I don't really have much commentary as I am so sick and tired of debating women's ordination. My gut says, 'Get a grip, guys (and a few women).' Yet we still have Fort Worth and Quincy as the last hold-outs against women's ordination. (San Joaquin used to be one of them but no longer.) For the women in those dioceses, we still must be vigilant.


Here was the sum total of women bishops in the Anglican Communion ten years ago at the last Lambeth Conference. I have almost lost track of how many there are now world-wide. Middle of the front row is the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion, Barbara Harris; third from the right in the back row, the first diocesan, Mary Adelia McLeod (my former bishop!).

Update (9 July) from Elizabeth Kaeton:

The total number of women who are bishops in the Anglican Communion stands at 24 (20 who are active).

Austrailia - 2
New Zealand - 2 (one retired)
Canada - 4
USA - 15 (3 retired)
Cuba - 1

As she writes: At the last Lambeth Conference in 1998, there were 11 women in the Anglican Communion who were bishops. A gain of 13 over the course of a decade is not exactly galloping progress.