The current situation

Currently, whilst women can be ordained as priests, they are specifically barred from the higher office of bishop. To change this will require a two-thirds majority vote in all three houses of the Church of England's General Synod, which must then be ratified by the Houses of Parliament.
 

Simple legislation with guidelines

WATCH is campaigning for ‘simple legislation’ to remove obstacles to the consecration of women bishops. That is, a legal act with no caveats or conditions limiting the ministry of women bishops or allowing those opposed to opt out of their jurisdiction. Such a situation of caveats and conditions currently exists in relation to women priests through the “Act of Synod”, an internal Church of England law which allows parishes to opt out of being ministered to by a woman, and to seek oversight from a bishop who does not himself ordain women. WATCH proposes that instead of legislating similar limits to women's episcopal ministry, simple legislation for women bishops should be accompanied by a set of guidelines governing how different views on the issue of women's ministry are to be accommodated and respected within dioceses. The United States of America already models this approach, where women bishops work closely with male colleagues to appropriately minister to congregations who in conscience cannot accept their episcopal role.

For a full treatment of these issues, plus WATCH's proposals for how women bishops should be introduced, please see:
WATCH Response to General Synod Decisions (July 2006)
WATCH Submission to Legislative Group

What next?

What should happen to those opposed to women bishops?
This is what Bishop Geralyn Wolf suggests...

At a WATCH meeting in London on 5 July 2004, Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, USA, talked of her pastoral care of the parishes in her diocese and how she was received. She commented on how she can be perceived as Bishop by those who think women should always be kind, sweet and nice and are then shocked when she came down pretty hard on boundary violations, receiving the comment, ”but women are supposed to understand”! She advised us that we must be careful when we in England get our first woman bishop as we must not think that she will necessarily be liberal or think as many of us might think about different issues. When a woman bishop is chosen it will be hard for her. We must get to know her. She may have to “buy” straight into the House of Bishops to have credibility and she is going to have a hard time. She is not just going to have to deal with Forward-in-Faith but will have to deal with Bishops-in-Faith too. She will need our support whether we agree with all her views or not.

One thing she commented on was that in Canada and the States there are no, so called, “flying bishops” with the undermining difficulties these bring within the Church of England. Over ninety percent of the bishops did not support episcopal oversight. Instead they favoured bishops reaching a trust and understanding about the disaffected parishes. England’s example was pointed out as a bad one. While there are no “no-go” parishes or areas for the women bishops, it is clearly difficult for them visiting parishes with disaffected priests to take part in a function or activity. In this context Bishop Geralyn stated that, “we have won the war so I don’t mind losing some of the battles. Christian charity must come first”. However, all three independently talked of the pastoral care they arranged for those few priests who found it hard to accept their ministries; an action that led to one parish priest commenting on the generosity of spirit shown by the bishop concerned.

General Synod has now voted to go ahead with legislation to be drafted for women becoming bishops. The legislative group has been set up.

WATCH will continue to campaign vigorously for simple legislation to allow women to be bishops, by lobbying Synod members, members of parliament, the press and opinion formers.

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WATCH and Affirming Catholicism
In May 2006 WATCH and Affirming Catholicism made joint proposals for legislation for women as bishops. Joint press-release in Acrobat Reader