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Women bishops law: Church asked to back fast-track scheme Women bishops: Church backs plan to fast-track scheme
(about 14 hours later)
The general synod will be asked to approve plans later which could see the first woman bishop in the Church of England appointed by Christmas. The Church of England's governing body has backed legislation which could see the first woman bishop appointed by the end of the year.
It will be asked to fast-track the revision of the latest proposals and to cut the time given to individual dioceses to consider them. The general synod has agreed to cut the time it would take to consult its 44 dioceses on the legislation from six months to three.
That could lead to a final vote in July and legislation in November. The move could lead to final approval of the legislation in July and it could come into force by November.
It comes after the synod failed to agree on legislation by six votes in November 2012. Lois Haslam, of Chester diocese, hailed a step towards the "promised land".
After the proposals, which had been debated over several years, were narrowly defeated, Church leaders said they would try to change normal procedures to expedite new legislation. Speaking during the debate over the legislation, she said: "I feel something like what Moses must have felt as he approached the promised land.
Unprecedented measures "We have wandered round women bishops legislation for many, many years, we are now approaching the promised land and it is exciting."
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the proposed change in rules was a sign of how urgently Church leaders wanted to act to seize the initiative in the long and divisive debate about women bishops. 'Counting chickens'
The Church would be attempting to use unprecedented measures to hurry the process along, our correspondent said. The proposal to halve the consultation period was backed by 358 general synod members, with 39 voting against and nine abstaining.
Never before had the Church's 44 dioceses had the time they were given to scrutinise such proposals so curtailed, he added. The legislation will now go to the Church's dioceses for approval and, providing the majority approve it by the 22 May deadline, the general synod will be able to hold the final debate in July.
Instead of appointing a committee to revise the plans over several months, the Synod is expected to complete the task in a morning. If passed, the legislation would go to Parliament for approval and could be in force before the end of the year.
If the Synod agrees, a final vote is likely to take place in July, with ratification by Parliament following in time for the first woman bishop to be ordained probably early in 2015. However, Bishop of Rochester James Langstaff sounded a note of caution after the vote.
'Train crash' "I am not in the business of counting chickens before I have got them, as it were, because we do not know how people will vote at the final approval vote necessarily," he said.
In November 2013, members of the Church's ruling body passed a motion - with a majority of 378 to eight, with 25 abstentions - paving the way for endorsement of women bishops alongside a "declaration" by bishops setting out guidance for parishes which reject female ministry. "One house failing to get the two-thirds majority can lead to the whole thing failing.
The package also includes the creation of an ombudsman to rule on disputes. "We are hopeful that the different shape of the process we are running will lead to final approval, otherwise we would not be taking it through to that stage.
It could see traditionalist clergy who oppose women bishops and refuse to co-operate with the ombudsman's inquiries facing disciplinary proceedings. "But until votes are counted, it would be premature to assume it is going to go through."
The latest vote came almost exactly a year after the synod had controversially failed to agree on the legislation. The plans remain divisive in some sections of the Church.
At the time, the synod's general secretary William Fittall described the collapse of the legislation as a "train crash" and Prime Minister David Cameron said the church "needed to get on with it". David Banting, from Chelmsford Diocese, criticised the fast tracking as "unprecedented, irresponsible, as well as being unhelpful".