Should women ever be bishops?

By Emma John, from the Guardian 4 July 2010

It's an issue which could result in schism and put the future of the church in jeopardy. Four women who would be in line for the top job, reveal why it's time for Christians to put their differences behind them.

It's midday in Westminster Abbey and a robed priest is presiding at communion – holding the chalice aloft, bowing before it. It's a small congregation, just five or six tourists, but high-church ritual is still meticulously observed. In this 1,000-year-old building, tradition is the stock-in-trade.

In the cloisters behind the Chapter House lives Rev Jane Hedges, Canon Steward at the Abbey, and one of the most senior women in the Church of England. The 54-year-old, who cares for the Abbey's tens of thousands of visitors, was among the very first intake of women priests to be ordained in 1994. "People asked then: 'When do you think the first women bishops will be?'" says Hedges. "And I remember replying: 'I don't think there will be women bishops before I retire.'"

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