The departing Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, argued for it-as did the incoming one, Justin Welby. Two of the three houses of the Church of England's governing synod, representing bishops and clergy, overwhelmingly voted for it, together with a large majority of the House of Laity. But it was not large enough, and on November 20th a measure that would have cleared the way for women bishops in Anglicanism's mother church failed to pass. There was immediate talk of a church "committing suicide".
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