Church of England braces for critical vote on women bishops

The Church of England may be about to turn its back on more than 2,000 years of Christian tradition by allowing women to be ordained as bishops.

Since the days of Jesus and his 12 male apostles the Church has been led by exclusively male bishops, their authority handed down the generations by the laying on of hands.

There is a general consensus in the Church of England - which ordained women as priests for the first time 18 years ago - that the role of bishop should be open to women too...

..."High church" traditionalists share the Roman Catholic view that because Jesus chose only men to be his apostles, the spiritual leadership of the Church should be male only.

They argue that because the Roman Catholic Church (from which Anglicans inherited their ancestry of male bishops at the time of the Reformation) and the Orthodox Church cannot accept women bishops, the Church of England is not able to make such a fundamental decision.

Some say it is impossible to be sure that women can be bishops - or priests either for that matter.

For these traditionalists, if a woman presides at Holy Communion, they cannot be sure the bread and wine contain the "real presence" of Jesus.

They argue that if a woman bishop were to ordain a man, they could not be sure he was a real priest.

Read the rest here.

An unusually fair and balanced story (for the msm) on this topic via the BBC.