A LEADING campaigner for female bishops has hailed the “brilliance” of a new wording of the proposed law allowing for the historic change.
The Reverend Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes backed a new wording proposed by the Reverend Janet Appleby, from North Tyneside , and overwhelmingly adopted by the House of Bishops earlier this month.
She said: “In a way, it is not what anybody wants, but a consensus is building that it will do for everyone. I would be very surprised if it doesn’t go through (at the church synod) in November.
“The brilliance of Janet’s words is putting in the word ‘respect’.”
It suggests stand-in male bishops, for churches opposed to female bishops, should be chosen in a way that “respects” the church’s reasons for requesting a man.
Dr Threlfall-Holmes will not vote on the issue, having surrendered her Synod seat when she left her Durham University post to become vicar of Belmont and Pittington, Durham.
She said she had probably been “too controversial” to become a bishop.
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