Should women ever be bishops?

From The London Guardian-

It's midday in Westminster Abbey and a robed priest is presiding at communion – holding the chalice aloft, bowing before it. It's a small congregation, just five or six tourists, but high-church ritual is still meticulously observed. In this 1,000-year-old building, tradition is the stock-in-trade.

In the cloisters behind the Chapter House lives Rev Jane Hedges, Canon Steward at the Abbey, and one of the most senior women in the Church of England. The 54-year-old, who cares for the Abbey's tens of thousands of visitors, was among the very first intake of women priests to be ordained in 1994. "People asked then: 'When do you think the first women bishops will be?'" says Hedges. "And I remember replying: 'I don't think there will be women bishops before I retire.'"

Yet Hedges is now being touted as the first woman to get the job. She is one of a growing number of women – archdeacons, deans and canons – with both the qualifications and the experience to take up the position. And this month, after several years of wrangling, the General Synod, which meets in York from 9-13 July, will try to pass the final piece of legislation allowing them to do so.

For those outside the church, and many within it, it may seem curious that after 16 years of women in the priesthood promotion to bishop is still denied them. "I think many of the bishops themselves find it uncomfortable that when they meet, it's an all-male environment," says Hedges. "It's not at all representative of how the Church of England is."

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/04/should-women-ever-be-made-bishops