A CHURCH adviser has expressed her support for the consecration of women bishops ahead of national discussions on the subject.

Antonia Cretney, the Bishop of Oxford’s adviser for women in ordained ministry, said she backed proposals to introduce women bishops without the need for safeguards, such as new dioceses, which have been demanded by opponents.

If the proposal is approved by the General Synod of the Church of England at a meeting in York in July, it is expected to spark a walkout by some Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals.

The Rev Cretney said: “In this diocese, there are about 200 women and they make up a third of the total ordained ministry.

“I don’t think the work in the diocese could be sustained without the ministry of ordained women.

“I hope to see a woman bishop for the sake of the Church’s mission and ministry.

“Among the clergy, those who are against the notion of women bishops are men, and they are in a very small minority overall.”

Christina Rees, a member of the General Synod and a leading campaigner for women bishops, also welcomed the proposals.

She said: “This is something we can go ahead with and it holds faith with what the General Synod has been asking for. I very much hope that in July the General Synod will pass it and it will not be subject to any further delaying tactics.”

The first women priests in the Church of England were ordained in 1994 and the Church gave its backing to the principle of women bishops in 2005 and 2006.

The Church said if the legislation was approved, 2014 was the earliest “realistic date” for the first women bishops to be consecrated.

The Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley, the Rev Dr Jonathan Baker, from the Oxford Diocese, and the Rev Simon Killwick, from the Manchester Diocese, said: “Traditionalists have remained committed to the life of the national Church and have contributed, as they wish to continue to do, to its mission to all the people of England.

“But this legislation would cut off their lifeblood, and force them out from that same Church of England, to its great detriment. A narrower and more exclusive church would be the result. We hope and pray that the House of Bishops, and the General Synod, will pause and think again.”

Dr Baker, the principal of Pusey House, a Church of England chapel and library in St Giles, Oxford, added: “The question under discussion is not whether there will be women bishops, but what arrangements will be made and how it is done.”