DENVER — More than two decades after the Episcopal Church first authorized the ordination of women priests, the church's highest policymaking body moved here Thursday to bring three bishops into compliance who have refused to ordain women.
The overwhelming vote by deputies at the church's triennial two-house legislature, known as the General Convention, orders a task force to visit the three holdout dioceses in California, Texas and Illinois and directs the three bishops who have refused to ordain women to develop a plan for full compliance.
The ordination of women has long been controversial in various member churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Church of England estimates that up to 400 of its male priests have left and became Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox since the Church of England began ordaining women in 1992.
In the United States, most Episcopalians thought the issue had been settled 24 years ago. The church authorized the ordination of women deacons in 1970, then, in 1976, authorized the ordination of women as priests and bishops. Today there are an estimated 2,000 women among the church's 15,000 priests, and eight women bishops.
But three of the church's bishops have steadfastly held out against ordaining women as priests. The holdout bishops maintain that because Jesus did not choose any women as his apostles, today's Christian churches have no right to ordain women.
Thursday's resolution noted that the California diocese in the San Joaquin Valley had made some progress toward ordaining women. Indeed, a representative of San Joaquin's Episcopal bishop, Rev. John David Schofield, maintained Thursday that the diocese is already in compliance with church law.
The diocese has one woman priest working as an assistant rector in a parish, said Nancy Salmon of Visalia, Calif., a member of the diocesan executive committee. Although that priest was ordained elsewhere, the diocese also has seven women among 28 current candidates for ordination as either deacons or priests, she said. Schofield was not in attendance here. His Fresno, Calif., office said he is recovering from heart bypass surgery.
The other two dioceses, in Fort Worth, Texas, and Quincy, Ill., have taken a harder line.
"We're not going to comply," said the Rev. Ryan Reed of Fort Worth. "We're not going to compromise the Catholic faith."
In floor debate, proponents of women's ordination disputed the contention that denying women ordination was theologically based or that the three dioceses were being singled out for punishment.
"This is not about theology," said James E. Bradberry of the Diocese of Southern Virginia. "This is not about coercion. It is about access to the mainstream of the church for women."
The resolution approved by the House of Delegates is expected to be approved by the House of Bishops, the convention's other body. On Thursday, the bishops concurred with the House of Deputies resolution that for the first time officially acknowledged homosexual couples in the church but rejected proposals to develop liturgical rites to bless same-sex unions.