Women Bishops and Reception: An Occasion for Rethinking

by Stephen Noll, Anglican Compass

The Gafcon Primates authorized the Task Force on Women in the Episcopate in 2015. The decision to focus on the episcopate was made for pragmatic and ecclesiological reasons: at that time, there were no women bishops in the Gafcon churches, and bishops in our polity are “heads” bearing authority within their dioceses and ecumenically. The Task Force included representatives—men and women, episcopal, presbyteral, diaconal, and lay, for and against women’s ordination—from eleven Gafcon provinces, representing a majority of the members of the Anglican Communion.

Task Force Recommendation

We met three times in person and submitted recommendations to the Gafcon Primates in 2017, the chief of which stated:

that the provinces of GAFCON should retain the historic practice of the consecration only of men as bishops until and unless a strong consensus to change emerges after prayer, consultation and continued study of Scripture among the GAFCON fellowship.

The Primates approved these recommendations. In 2019, the Task Force presented a 327-page Interim Report, with fourteen essays and a summary available here. My essay was titled “Women Bishops and Reception” [N.B.: “reception” is a term referring to how the Church “receives” the teaching of Scripture and passes it on (tradition)]. Once again, the Primates endorsed the Report and encouraged the Task Force to continue its work.

Read here