You might remember me blogging in February about something called TEA, which was the outline of a proposal for enabling women to become bishops in the CofE without disenfranchising people who can’t accept the ordained ministry of women. It wasn’t a very satisfactory document by any means, but it was, apparently, something that the bishops could all subscribe to. There is a General Synod meeting in a couple of weeks. What we were expecting was that the bishops would present a more worked-up version of TEA which Synod would have to accept or reject.
I was talking to Ian and Gareth about this yesterday, and one theme that arose was how this was a very ‘top down’ approach – the bishops coming up with something and trying to get people to agree with it, rather than allowing things to come up from the people in parishes, deaneries and dioceses – which doesn’t feel very healthy or really what church should be about.
The bishops had a big meeting a couple of weeks ago, at which one thing they did was discuss how to take this forward in view of feedback they had received since then, and how TEA had been developed by the Bishops’ working group. There were also several senior women present at some of this meeting.
I've finally had a chance to look through my Synod papers today and have found something very cool. As a result of this meeting, the top down approach seems to have changed totally – they have acknowledged it won’t work. What instead is being presented to Synod is the opportunity to subscribe to the 'theological principle' of women becoming bishops – without having to subscribe to a way of doing it. Here’s the wording:

The Archbishop of York to move:
‘That this Synod welcome and affirm the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England is consonant with the faith of the Church as the Church of England has received it and would be a proper development in proclaiming afresh in this generation the grace and truth of Christ.’

that is amazing, because Synod agreeing with that statement doesn’t have direct implications for people in the church who don’t agree with it. It’s not about what will or won't happen to people who would feel pushed out of the church if they had to be under the authority of a woman ('provision') - it's a broad but clear and positive statment about where the church is at.
So people who do want women bishops, but don’t want to hurt anyone, can (hopefully) agree with this with a clear conscience. It's very, very good for justice and equality.
What is then proposed is not a framework from the bishops, but a commitment to continuing to explore possibilities at parish, deanery and diocesan level, and to prepare legislative groundwork that provides a range of options. So the bishops don't have all the answers.
Read what the Archbishops have to say here.
I’m so excited!