The Church of England General Synod has the first of two debates on women bishops later this morning.
Ruth Gledhill in the Times Church faithful may block the move for women bishops to stop the risk of defection by clergy. She writes:
Proposals to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England could fall at the last hurdle as church members take fright at the prospect of mass defections among the clergy, The Times has learnt.
Tom Peterkin in the Telegraph Church of England urged to ‘disagree in love’ over women bishops
The Church of England has been urged to be an example of how Christians can “disagree in love” as it debates plans for women bishops that threaten to tear it apart.
Paul Vallely in the Independent Church in the lurch
Big words are being thrown around in the Church of England these days; words such as schism, with echoes from 1,000 years ago when the world divided between Rome and the Orthodox; words such as Reformation, with echoes of the split between Catholic and Protestant, which spilt a deal of English blood in the 16th century.
Paul Handley in the Yorkshire Post Where democracy works in mysterious ways
“OH, goody – it’s the General Synod this weekend.” I’m sorry to report that this is not a phrase I hear very often.
Judith Maltby in The Guardian’s page writes on the Face to faith page It is odd that the opponents of women bishops should now adopt the language of ‘pain’. The same article is on the Comment is free page How to solve the question of female bishops where it is subtitled “When ‘pain’ enters into arguments about the future of Anglicanism, we’re faced with an impossible conundrum”.
For what it’s worth, the Church Society report states “There were a number of questions about Wycliffe Hall theological college and Elaine Storkey took another swipe at the college under the guise of a question. Philip Giddings, in response gave a positive plug for the college noting a remark that it was “full of students” and had “united staff”.”
“United staff”?
“The Times has learnt.”
Oh Ruth, we Yanks have “learnt” the hard way, that when someone says “have learnt” (or its cognates *g*), they are SPINNING, wildly (See re George W. Bush and “The 16 Words” of his 2003 State of the Union Speech)
I don’t doubt, that the usual Sky-is-Falling (w/ Icky Girl Cooties) crowd is trying to STOP the consecration of God’s bishops-made-female. But the contention that these squeaky wheels are a significant percentage of “church faithful” {snort} is a line I ain’t buying.
Lord have mercy!
Yes, “The Times has learnt”….AKA “someone with an axe to grind has said something to a reporter…”