Church of England approves plan allowing female bishops

The Church of England has overturned centuries of tradition with a final vote allowing women to become bishops, and the first appointments are possible by Christmas.

Approval of the historic change in legislation, which was first agreed to in July, was announced on Monday after a largely symbolic show of hands at the general synod, the lawmaking body of the Church of England. The British parliament supported the measure last month.

“Today we can begin to embrace a new way of being the church and moving forward together,” Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said after the vote.

Two decades after the first female priest was ordained, the issue of women taking senior roles in the church hierarchy remains divisive. As recently as 2012, the proposal had been defeated by six votes.

But Archbishop Welby, the spiritual leader of the church and the global Anglican Communion, who supported the vote from the start, had warned fellow church leaders this year that the public would find the exclusion of women “almost incomprehensible”.