Women Bishops? June mag 2005 In February the General Synod of the Church of England debated the Rochester report Women Bishops in the Church of England? and voted to take note of it. Another debate is scheduled for July, when the General Synod will decide whether it wishes to set in train the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate and, if it does, to decide what the next steps should be.

Even if the Church wants women bishops it is Parliament and the Queen who finally decide. The process of debate in the various Church Committees is likely to take at least four years and who knows how long after that for Parliament? Meanwhile, the Working Party that produced the report expressed the hope that individuals and groups in dioceses, deaneries and parishes would engage in the careful study of the question as commended by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in the preface.

Not only must the question 'should there be women bishops?' be considered but also the whole range of issues that must also be involved, such as if there are to be women bishops, how is it to be done; and how best to accommodate those who are conscientiously opposed whichever way the vote goes?

A study programme to help parishes, deaneries and dioceses engage with the Rochester report has been published on the Church of England website. The study programme is intended to be part of the process of discussion about women in the episcopate and the material at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/womenbishops aims to draw attention to the range of issues involved in the debate.