From Robert Pigott, religious affairs correspondent, BBC News:
It is hard to exaggerate the significance of today's decision at the York Synod.
It breaks a hitherto unbroken tradition of exclusively male bishops inherited from the first Christians almost 2,000 years ago.
Some Anglicans see it as a "cosmic shift" - arguing that the Church's theology has been changed by its acceptance that men and women are equally eligible to lead and teach Christianity.
With the decision, the Church is acknowledging the importance secular society places on equality, signaling that it wants to end its isolation from the lives of the people it serves.
The legislation leaves traditionalists relying largely on the goodwill and generosity of future women bishops, a source of anxiety for many, but heralded by some as a sign of a new culture of trust and co-operation in the Church.
With the even more divisive issue of sexuality on the horizon, the Church will need that culture as never before.
1. The theology of the Anglican Church did not 'change by its acceptance...' but rather the theology of the Anglican Church made a cosmic shift long before the acceptance of women as office bearers which was the cause of that acceptance. The divine and inspiration and authority of Scripture was thrown out the door by the Anglican Church many years ago, which opens the door to anything and everything to be believed and/or practiced.
2. Allowing women in office is not the answer to the alleged problem of the clergy being in 'isolation from the lives of the people it serves'. When the clergy thinks it is something
special and misuses its vested power to lord it over the people, then there is isolation. This devastating truth is evident through the visible church today regardless of denominational lines. The Fraternity of Pharisees is alive and well in the modern church and it is its members who introduce heresy into the Church and feed those poisonous doctrines to the sheep (laity), who being basically biblically illiterate and therefore without discernment nor wisdom willingly and gladly eat whatever is put before them.
3. 'New Culture within the church'?? Indeed, that 'new culture' is nothing less than the world itself which the church as a whole has gone back to. The Scriptures are perspicuous in its teaching concerning separation from the world. But once again, the Scriptures are ignored in its teaching about righteousness, holiness and the wickedness that exists in the world, and thus the dog has returned to its vomit. This reality likewise exists across denominational lines. It can be most easily seen in the adoption of 'contemporary (worldly) worship', which is precipitated by a rejection of the biblical God and an embracing of a man-made idol who loves the things of this world.
4. Yes, I agree that sexuality is the next door to be opened. Notice, he didn't write 'homosexuality' specifically, but rather he used the generic term 'sexuality'. The reason this more accurately describes what is coming next, whether intended or not is because all forms of sexual deviancy are becoming the 'norm' in the world and the false church will doubtless follow suit. The darkness is enveloping the church more and more because the Light has been discarded because there is no light in so much of the visible church today.
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