Church of England votes in favor of women bishops

LONDON: History was made on Monday with the Church of England, after four decades of wrangling, voted in favour of allowing women to become bishops, for first time in its history.

The General Synod meeting in York gave the final approval to legislation introducing the change.

The vote means that the next Archbishop of Canterbury or York could be a woman.

Under the Church's voting rules, major legislations such as this require a two thirds majority in all three "houses" of the General Synod - bishops, clergy and laity.

The historic victory on Monday came 20 months after the failure of the earlier legislation to secure the necessary two-thirds majorities in November 2012.

Earlier this year, the Church of England admitted to a crisis — it has run out of male bishops.

This made the General Synod of the church fast-track the legislative process to enable women to become bishops to be completed this year.

One of the members of the Synod applauded the decision as he warned the church that it "urgently" needs to ordain its first women bishops because it has effectively run out of male clerics.

He added that the "shallow pond" of suitable male candidates had already been "overfished".

The legislation would now go to parliament for approval and could be in force before the end of the year.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently suggested the first women bishops in the Church of England could be fast-tracked into the House of Lords.

"I strongly support women bishops and I hope the Church of England takes this key step to ensure its place as a modern church, in touch with our society," he said at the parliament recently.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby earlier had called on the Synod to "embrace a radical new way".

Ahead of his address during the debate, which lasted for about five hours, he said he was hopeful the Synod will approve the legislation.