Anglicans Take 1st Step Toward Female Priests

The Church of England today approved the drafting of legislation that would admit women to the all-male priesthood.

Church leaders voted 317 to 145 to approve a report by 44 diocesan bishops that outlines the steps needed to bring women into the priesthood.

The vote cleared the way for the drafting of legislation that would allow women to become priests. The bishops were also asked to prepare a code of practice to safeguard individuals and congregations opposed to female priests.

The vote by the General Synod--the policy-making body of 574 bishops, clergy and laity--came after 5 1/2 hours of debate. Two members abstained and 110 were absent.

No Vote Until 1990s

The legislation will be drafted by the General Synod’s standing committee. It will not be voted on by the church until the early 1990s and would then have to be approved by Parliament.

Before the vote, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Robert A. K. Runcie, said he was “sorry that the bishops’ report . . . has been the occasion of what I can only call premature panic.”

“It’s a little early to be taking the tarpaulins off the lifeboats or even signaling to other shipping to stand by to take on board some of the passengers,” he said.

Runcie leads the worldwide, 70-million-member Anglican Communion, in which about 750 women have been ordained priests in nine of its 27 provinces, mostly by U.S. Episcopalians.

The Church of England’s synod already has said there is no fundamental objection to women priests, and Runcie supported going ahead with the legislation set out in the bishops’ report.

“We owe it to the women who ask for their vocation to be tested. We owe it to the rest of the communion,” he said.

Rejection of the report would have delayed women’s ordination indefinitely.

Parliament must approve major changes in church law because the Church of England is a state church, whose temporal head is Queen Elizabeth II.

Departures Threatened

Leading church figures have threatened to leave the church if the synod accepts the bishops’ report.

In it, the bishops stress the need to keep the church together by having safeguards for bishops, clergy or parishes that refuse to accept women priests, and financial compensation for those who feel they would have to leave the church.

The leading opponent of women priests is Bishop of London Graham Leonard, the church’s third-ranking prelate. He has said he is prepared to break away, taking like-minded clergy and congregations with him, along with church buildings and other assets.

However, Spencer Maurice, a barrister and expert on church law, said any breakaway group would have no claim on church assets because its members would no longer be affiliated with the church.