CofE sees difficult debate on women bishops

by Maria Mackay
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

“There is no doubt that we are at an unsettled moment in the Church of England,” the Secretary General of the Church of England General Synod told journalists on Monday.

Outlining the agenda for the July Synod in York, William Fittall said that tension over the scheduled four-day debate on women bishops was being compounded by weekend reports of an unauthorised church ‘wedding’ blessing for two homosexual clergymen last month, and an imminent conference of conservative Anglicans in the Holy Land.

The Global Anglican Future Conference will bring conservative Anglican clergy to Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June to “prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised” - referring to their dissatisfaction with the US Episcopal Church’s decision to embrace homosexuality. The conference takes place just weeks before the Lambeth Conference, a meeting of bishops from around the Anglican Communion once every 10 years. the rest