The Church of England has admitted that the first women bishops could be ordained by the end of the decade if the proposals put forward by a new report are implemented. The report is the result of a three-year long working party headed by Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester. It sets out a number of options for the church to take into consideration if it is to go forward with plans to continue ordaining women bishops (which it has done for the past ten years), and to promote them to the episcopate.

The conservative evangelical group, The Church Society immediately condemned the proposals, which they insist are contrary to the Holy teachings of the Bible. Women on the other hand have greeted the news with joy, and have seen it as a move forward after their efforts over recent years for changes to be made.

The Bishop of Rochester said, “We have tried to show in the report that it is a soluble problem if the church wants to make a decision that is not maintaining the status quo. If the church decides after due consideration to ordain women to the episcopate we think it will be possible, given goodwill on every side, to maintain the unity of the church.”

The report fell short of actually making firm recommendations, but instead a series of options are laid out regarding the practices that are currently in place, and the setting up of a separate province with its own Episcopal structure, run parallel to those in York and Canterbury, which would be only for the churches that did not recognise women’s ministry or accept the authority of men who ordained them.

The 289-page report was drawn up by an eleven person party consisting of five women, and Dr Nazir-Ali, an evangelical, is one of 39 out of 44 diocesan bishops to have ordained women, and in fact was the first to promote a woman minister to an archdeacon.

The report says: “It seems certain that, for the foreseeable future at least, acceptance of gender-blind equality of opportunity will remain a central feature of western society. This means that the church's position will appear increasingly isolated and anachronistic and there will be continuous pressure on the church to reconsider its decision ... the Church of England will not be able to commend the gospel effectively if its structures embody sexism in a way that contemporary society no longer finds acceptable.”

The report will be debated by the General Synod at its next meeting in February and a proposal likely to result to be out before its following meeting, due to take place next July. From there detailed legislation will be drawn up and then the forty-four diocesan synods will have to decide their stance, before a two-thirds majority decision is reached from its lay, clergy and Episcopal members. However, the final assent must ultimately come from Parliament, and the plans will require royal assent.

This process could take up to four years to complete, which actually means that the earliest that women bishops could appointed is 2009.

Women bishops currently make up almost a quarter of all ordained ministers in the Church of England, and this year for the first time outnumbered men in the number training for ordination. However, despite all this the women ministry is still not accepted by certain groups of High Church Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals, who hold the belief that their position in the Church structure is contrary to church traditions.

Those who support women ordination and for their promotion to the episcopate have stated their belief that the issue was settled 12 years ago, when the general synod finally voted in favour of women ordination. This choice greatly threatened a split within the communion at that stage, but reconciliation won through as only a tiny minority of priests actually left the Church.