I have for some time felt that the Church of England would benefit from women bishops. Women make excellent parish clergy, cathedral deans, archdeacons... There is, in my view, no reason why they should not be consecrated bishops. (Though why anyone would want to be a bishop is another matter. I most certainly do not.)
However not everyone shares that view. I have met people who are opposed to the ordination of women clergy in general and those opposed to the consecration of women bishops in particular. Some of those opposed have struggled to find any theological justification for their position and could probably be fairly described as "bigots". Others have been good kind committed Christians with thought out theological positions that I can respect even if I don't agree with them. They are people who have faithfully served the church. They are a minority but a minority that I want to see assured of a continuing place in the Church of England.
The legislation that was defeated spoke of giving such an assurance but clearly it wasn't felt by the minority to do so. It seems to me that there were two factors at work.
First there was the way the legislation had changed. "We need safeguards", said the traditionalists. "OK, here are safeguards" said the house of Bishops and the draft legislation was amended. "But those safeguards create second class bishops" said the liberals. So those safeguards were removed. We were supposed to go ahead on the basis of trust.
And this is where the second factor comes in. Traditionalists have looked to see what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Reports and letters abound in the church press with stories of traditional congregations and clergy being thrown out of their churches by liberal dioceses, of buildings formerly used by those traditional congregations being sold off at knock down prices to be used as mosques. I believe that traditionalists on this side of the pond fear that it could all be repeated over here.
I think this is reflected in the comments of the Archbishop of Kenya. He writes:
"The key issue at this stage was the maintenance of proper safeguards for those who as a matter of theological principle could not accept such a fundamental change. I am therefore heartened that the Church of England has stepped aside from following the path of the Episcopal Church of the United States which has progressively marginalised and excluded those who seek to hold to historic Anglican faith and order in good conscience."
I hope that we have women bishops sooner rather than later. I hope that we learn the lesson of this debacle. Liberals don't want safeguards in legislation that create (from their perspective) second class bishops. Traditionalists don't want legislation that creates women bishops. I hope that Liberals will allow safeguards and Traditionalists will allow women bishops. Or is that too loving and christian for the Church?
