The result is what both sides are calling a tug of war for the Church of England’s soul, offering a snapshot of one of the last frontiers of the Western world’s culture wars: the push to bring modern norms inside faith-based institutions.
The move to open the way to women was approved by bishops and clergy at a General Synod last month, but the measure failed to win a two-thirds majority among representatives of the laity. The minority that blocked the proposal portray themselves as strict interpreters of the Bible and guardians of tradition, and they warn of wider divisions if church leaders proceed with efforts to revive the plan.
At a time when casual churchgoers are abandoning pews, these conservatives argue that the Church of England cannot afford to alienate some of its most active members: Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals whose numbers are swelling even as they organize into what some here are calling a British version of the American religious right.
“What is happening here will fall into a very long story of battles amongst Christians,” said Gill R. Evans, professor of intellectual history and medieval theology at Cambridge. “If women bishops does go through, and we think it will eventually, there may very well be a proportion of the Church of England who walk away.”
In some quarters, the call for female bishops has become inexorably linked to another controversial effort, one aimed at deepening acceptance of gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex couples. The Conservative-led British government introduced a bill this month that would vest most churches and other religious groups with the legal authority to conduct same-sex marriages. Under the measure, the Church of England would for now be barred from performing such ceremonies, a concession to conservatives.
But a growing number of voices inside and outside the church are pushing for recognition of same-sex marriages and an update to a church policy that allows gay and lesbian clergy members to serve only if they are officially celibate.
A front-line struggle
The battle lines dividing the church are exceedingly clear in places such as an affluent patch of North London where the parish boundaries of All Hallows end and those of St. James begin.
Inside the vaulted timber rafters of All Hallows, the Rev. David Houlding runs a citadel of conservative faith for an aging and formal congregation. Houlding chafes at the notion of same-sex church marriages and opposes ordaining women as bishops unless parishes such as his are allowed to opt out of acknowledging their authority.
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