"In any diocese in which a woman is appointed as bishop, the bishop of the diocese must ensure that appropriate episcopal pastoral oversight and ministry is provided for persons whose conscience precludes them from accepting the ministry of a bishop who is a woman ... No member of clergy or lay member of this church shall suffer any discrimination or prejudice because he or she in conscience accepts female bishops, priests or deacons or does not so accept them."

"There is something that God's teaching us, and we can work at it together and come to a good result....One of the things about this debate was that we had a petition from 1,300 Anglican women against the idea of women bishops.....Some people will just be astonished [at the Synod's decision]. Egalitarianism, the idea that men and women are identical has taken a strong root in our society, and people will talk about glass ceilings and the rest, but what we're discovering also is that as feminism has lost its way a bit, people are beginning to remember that men and women are not only equal but we are different, and that difference shows up in different roles within family life." ₅

"About 80-90 per cent of people in our diocese want it and about 60 per cent of people at synod want it, so it's not as if we're moving with a fringe element....Unlike some of the dioceses that are opposed to women, our diocese is growing and that is because we are focused on our mission and we have some very able women pursuing that."

"There are bishops in certain places that are ready to ordain women. I think it's marvelous the house of bishops voted in favor of women, because they are the group that are [sic] being asked to share their role. It seems we can't do it through the synod -- the bar is too high -- so we will have to do it another way."

"This means that whenever there are vacancies in dioceses that have adopted the 1992 canon, and whose own diocesan law permits it, a woman can become a diocesan bishop. ... The Anglican family across Australia is a diverse group and we are mature enough to engage in robust debate on many issues. ... There will be some in our family who will be unhappy with this ruling and it is now our urgent duty to offer care for those who retain a conscientious objection to women bishops." ₈

However, a snag developed over consecration of female priests as assistant bishops. Most of the latter are elected and confirmed under provisions of the Assistant Bishops' Canon 1966 which appears to require candidates to be male.

The bishops decided to take no action on the Appellate Tribunal's ruling until after their annual meeting on 2008-APR. ₁₀

	The Rt Rev Kay Goldsworthy of Perth was consecrated on 2008-MAY-22 as Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Perth. 10
	The Rt Rev Barbara Darling of Melbourne was consecrated on 2008-MAY-31 in the Diocese of Victoria. 11

A suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or a diocesan bishop.

To search this website:

Click on one of the links ^^ above at the < < left, or use this search bar:

^{Page Translator:}

This page translator works on Firefox,
Opera, Chrome, and Safari browsers only

After translating, click on the "show
original" button at the top of this
page to restore page to English.