A third Anglican province apart from Canterbury and York, with an independent archbishop and its own hierarchy separate from the rest of the Church of England, in which all the faithful contrary to the ordination of women bishops could find a home: the proposal is made by the archbishop of York David Hope, second in importance only to the Primate Rowan Williams. By making this statement, Hope has re-opened an old division in Anglicanism, that of the ordination of women. Ten years ago, when the Church of England began to ordain women pastors, two special bishops, the so-called “flying bishops”, were chosen to provide pastoral care to those faithful contrary to the ordination of women. Hope is now asking for an even more radical shake-up, with the creation of a third archdiocese. The archbishop of York is an Anglo-Catholic, in other words a member of the so-called “High Church” wing of the Church of England that is closer to Rome and contrary to the ordination of women. The opponents of Hope are the liberal and evangelical wings of the Church of England who argue that a third province would be tantamount to a de facto schism of the Church of England. A commission chaired by the bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali is meanwhile studying the question of the possible ordination of women bishops, but will not report to the Anglican General Synod before the end of the year.
