Anglican church allows women bishops

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Anglican-church-allows-women-bishops/2007/09/28/1190486533538.html

[The Age] 28 Sep 2007--Australia could have its first Anglican woman bishop as early as next year following a decision by the church's highest court.

The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Philip Aspinall, said the appellate tribunal had decided there was nothing in the church's constitution that would prevent a woman becoming a bishop.

In 2005, a group of 25 members of the church's national parliament - the General Synod - asked the tribunal for its view on the lawfulness of women bishops.

The tribunal, by a majority of four to three, on Friday found it was possible to consecrate women bishops.

However, it said it could only occur in a diocese that had adopted a 1992 church law allowing women priests and which had ensured its own laws and constitution allowed it.

"So basically there is now nothing in the (church's) constitution to prevent a woman becoming a bishop," Dr Aspinall told reporters in Brisbane.