We must tackle discrimination ‘head on’, warns Bishop

THE EXPERIENCE of the Church’s struggles over women bishops shows that issues of discrimination need to be tackled “head on”, the Bishop of Chester has said.

In a House of Lords debate to mark International Women’s Day, Bishop Peter Forster said that until 2012 the Church had tried to accommodate women bishops by restricting their authority in their dioceses.

He told peers: “This rightly elicited the criticism that in some sense the resultant women bishops would have a second-class character about them, with an authority which was restricted as compared with their male counterparts.

“For some, that was an acceptable compromise as a way to get the legislation through.

“However, it failed in its purpose because a small but significant group of synod members who favoured opening the episcopate to women felt that the proposal lacked a certain inner integrity.

“I was among those and for that purpose I abstained in the vote in November 2012, when the legislation narrowly failed to achieve the necessary majorities.

“In the subsequent discussion, an honest assessment of what we were doing and where we are has produced the right conclusion in my view that the only way forward was a simpler proposal which opened the episcopate to women, essentially without any qualification.”

He said it was only when it was realized that there could be “no reservation or disguised discrimination” that the “log-jam” holding up the move suddenly cleared.

Bishop Forster said: “I have two daughters who are both making their ways successfully through two of our leading professions, but there has always been the sub- text that, ‘As long as you conform to a man’s world, we will give you every opportunity’.

“There is still quite a lot to be done sensitively to adapt our national life and professional life to the talented women whose gifts we so much need.

“Our experience in the church suggests that these issues ultimately need to be addressed head on, without too much compromise and the resultant disguised discrimination.”

He said perhaps the greatest challenge for the Church was accepting that there would not be a “progressive and deep transformation” of its ministry.

“There is an awareness of these issues and careful work is being done in advance of the first consecration to the episcopate to try to avoid inadvertent pressure for these women simply to conform to established male stereotypes,” he said.