Michael Brown: Primates pray for peace over spectre of women bishops

306: Constantine the Great acclaimed at York,

625: St Paulinus consecrated Bishop of York,

1070: Thomas of Bayeaux becomes the first Norman Archbishop of York,

1227: The building of the present York Minster begins,

1539: York becomes the seat of the royal Council of the North,

1963: York University founded,

2010: At the university, the General Synod meets and, by its actions, begins the disintegration of the Church of England.

What? What actions? The simple but highly significant action of ignoring or diluting a blueprint for peace in the Church put out by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of York John Sentamu.

The primates' move is an attempt – virtually an 11th-hour bid – to keep the CoE in one piece as it agonises over giving mitres to females.

Having women bishops in the ranks looks likely to happen in a couple of years and is just about the most controversial issue the Church has tackled since Henry VIII got rid of the Pope. It is engendering unbrotherly bitterness throughout the Church on a scale unprecedented in modern times.

It threatens schism.

Forward the hapless archbishops. When the General Synod begins its six-day meeting at York tomorrow, Anglican "MPs" will have before them a proposal from Williams and Sentamu. It is a desperate attempt – desperate is the only word – to keep the old Church of England on the road.

The pair have devised a scheme which they believe "might provide a way forward". The scheme inevitably drips with church-speak but, in secular terms, provides for "co-ordinate" jurisdictions where a woman diocesan bishop – a woman who eventually became, say, Bishop of Wakefield or Bradford or Sheffield – supposedly would be entitled to exercise any episcopal function like ordaining or confirming, but in practice allowing a nominated male bishop to step in when requested.

This, the Archbishops piously hope, would secure the status of women bishops without in any way derogating their powers. It would also – and this is the core of it – appease those who are fiercely opposed to the oversight of someone whose authority depends on a woman bishop, the primates claim. Those who are opposed are the Anglo-Catholics, the high-church brigade, and certain evangelicals. The Anglo-Cats, as the

mockers call them, certainly do not want to see an end to the present "flying bishops" arrangement – Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley, who lives in Leeds, is the northern flying bishop – whereby they administer to parishes which would never have a woman vicar and would show a woman priest the door if one ever had the temerity to turn up. The Archbishops' blueprint is well meant, of course. But it has already widened the confusion, deepened the scepticism and heightened the cynicism.

Williams and Sentamu believe they have moved beyond the "simple choice" between allowing women bishops to delegate power (to a man) and requiring them by law to sacrifice it.

But Watch (Women and the Church), the leading pro-women's ordination body, is not impressed with the assurances that all will be well.

"We are not convinced that the issues raised regarding jurisdiction will be resolved equitably when the practical steps of implementation are worked out. Will an 'unacceptable' diocesan bishop be required to share jurisdiction? And how? Or will it be at her or his discretion?", Watch is demanding to know.

Then there's Forward in Faith, the body spearheading the fight against "bishopesses". This Anglo-Catholic organisation has so far merely "welcomed" the Archbishops' statement and limply said it now looks forward "with great interest" to seeing how it goes at York this week and next.

It hardly bodes well.

The trouble is Their Graces the Lord Archbishops of Canterbury and

York, for all their grand-sounding titles, have little power. The Church of England has no papacy. Anglicanism is a democracy and Anglican legislators can, and sometimes do, put up two fingers to Their Graces... in a nice, polite, Anglican way of course.

The sad truth is very probably that my imagined 2010 entry above about the General Synod, meeting at York, deciding to jettison the

archbishops' blueprint and thereby beginning the disintegration of the Church of England may well come about.

The sorry scenario brings to mind the woeful words of Thomas Arnold, the 19th century educationalist and headmaster of Rugby: "The Church, as it now stands, no human power can save."

Michael Brown is the Yorkshire Post's Religious Affairs Correspondent.