Church of Wales votes to allow women bishops

Church of Wales votes to allow women bishops

LAMPETER, Wales — The decision by the Church of Wales to consecrate women bishops means the Church of England — the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion — will be the last in Britain to admit women as bishops.

Cheers erupted in a hall at Lampeter, Ceredigion in Wales, when the 144-member governing body of the Welsh church announced the result of the vote Sept. 12. A similar bill failed narrowly in 2008.

Ireland and Scotland both allow female bishops though none have been elected yet.

“The Welsh vote means that the Church of England will be last to accept the inevitable — women as bishops probably by the year 2015,” said Christina Rees, a member of the archbishop of Canterbury’s advisory council and a prominent campaigner for women bishops over the last three decades.