Diocesan backing for women bishops

RIPON AND LEEDS made histor y at the weekend by becoming the first diocese to vote in favour of women bishops at the fi nal meeting of its diocesan synod before the new Yorkshire diocese comes into being at Easter.

The vote was over whelming with 75 members of the synod voting in favour of a resolution proposed by the Bishop of Knaresborough; one member of the House of Laity voting against and two abstaining.

Bishop James Bell described the new measure as a ‘very different package’ from the one narrowly rejected by General Synod in November 2012. Ripon and Leeds Synod also thanked its Chancellor, Judge Simon Grenfell, who bowed out after 22 years of ser vice ahead of the start of the new diocese.

Three other diocesan synods also voted o verwhelmingly at the weekend in favour o f women bishops. In Chelmsford the measure was passed with seven priests and 11 laity voting against the measure. In Guildford there were three clergy voting against and abstaining while one person voted against in the House of Laity and three abstained.

Two clergy abstained in the Diocese of Edmundsbur y and Ipswich, bringing the total for the four dioceses as a whole to a 100 per cent vote in favour among the bishops and a 94 per cent vote in favour in the other two houses.

Hilar y Cotton, chair of WATCH, described the results as ‘ver y positive’ and said they indicated ‘wholehearted suppor t in the Church of England’ for women to become bishops. “We look for ward to an enthusiastic endorsement of this wish at General Synod in July,” she commented.