Commenting on the Governing Body of the Church in Wales’ decision on the Bill to enable women to be ordained as bishops the Reverend Alan Rabjohns, Chairman of Credo Cymru / Forward in Faith Wales, said today:

‘The extraordinary scenes at Lampeter yesterday have left many people reeling.  Those in favour of the Bill must have thought that they had achieved their objective when the amendment recommended by the Select Committee which said that pastoral care for those unable to accept the provision would be provided by an assistant bishop was lost.  But the substantive motion on the Bill in its final form was lost by three votes in the house of clergy and only four votes prevented it from failing in the house of laity too.

‘The reason for this is not hard to find.  It is the result of trying prematurely to foreclose the period of reception and refusing to clarify the nature of the provision for opponents contained in the original bill, when the constitutional provision contained in the amended bill had been ruled out.  This led to some of those who would not have voted against the Bill in the ordinary way of things to say that without even a modicum of fairness and justice they could not support it.

‘We should not be under any illusion that the issue has gone away; it will inevitably return.  Let us hope that when it does so wiser counsels will prevail and the ‘experiment in internal ecumenism’ which  began with the appointment of the first Provincial Assistant Bishop in 1996, and which has helped many of us to continue to play as full a part as possible in the Church of our land, will continue.  In the meantime, we will continue to proclaim the full Gospel of Christ in season and out of season.’