In addressing the British Methodist Conference in Portsmouth, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, spoke of his deep desire to see woman eventually ordained as bishops in the Church of England, but not in a way that will “violently disrupt” the everyday life of the church.
Archbishop Williams asked the Methodists to pray for the Church of England as they prepare for their own conference and the key debates on women bishops that will take place there. Williams said that:
“My hope and prayer is that we shall see women ordained as bishops in the Church of England. My hope and prayer is also that we shall do that in a way that does not violently disrupt some of the features of our common life, that we actually lose one another in a sense.
“Yes, we will have some mess afterwards but making that mess something other than rancorous and resentful is what I would like to see. I am quite prepared to be Petrine for quite a long time on that one [a reference to the leadership style of Peter who compromised on certain principles in order to preserve order and hierarchy within the church].”