Women bishops vote creates obstacles for church unity

The Church of England’s decision to ordain women bishops has put a new burden on ecumenical relations, leading figures have said.

The Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, co-chairman of Arcic (Anglican- Roman Catholic International Commission), said there would be concern in the Holy See as a result of the move but stressed that the goal to full, visible unity between the Churches remained.

In 2008 the then president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, issued a strong warning to the Church of England hierarchy saying that ordaining women bishops would move Anglicanism away from Catholic orthodoxy. This week, the editor of L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that the move by the General Synod on Tuesday would have “an extremely negative impact”. Speaking to The Tablet, Archbishop Longley said: “In our dialogue with the Anglican Communion, there is for us an additional obstacle with the decision of the Church of England to ordain women as bishops.”

Explaining that the matter will be discussed at Arcic’s next gathering and at meetings between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church held in Rome each November, he added: “It is important to recall the historic significance of the Church of England in the Anglican Communion … it has a particular resonance when the Church of England makes this change in its own ordination practices.”

Archbishop Longley pointed out, however, that women bishops have been ordained in a number of provinces in the Anglican Communion and one member of Arcic is Canadian Bishop Linda Nicholls, a suffragan in Toronto.

On Monday, cheers and whoops of joy erupted at the General Synod, both inside and outside the chamber at York University, after an overwhelming majority of ­bishops and clergy voted to ordain women bishops. The opposition was strongest in the House of Laity, responsible for defeating the measure by six votes in November 2012, where this time 45 voted against, 152 in favour and five abstained. A two-thirds majority was needed in each of the three houses of synod. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, played a significant role in resolving the deadlock over women.

Despite the result, Archbishop Longley described as “ecumenically fruitful” one of the House of Bishops declarations following the synod vote which stated that those who cannot accept women’s ordination “continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and ­tradition of the Anglican Communion” and that they should be able to “flourish” in the Church of England.

In Rome, Archbishop Longley’s co-chairman on Arcic, Archbishop Sir David Moxon, who is also the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, said: “The Roman Catholic responses so far have been gracious, honest and constructive. There is the acknowledgement that this decision in the Anglican Communion represents an obstacle to organic union, but also that this decision will not stop the ongoing ecumenical quest, cooperation and friendship that we value so much.”