Several bishops have told the they feel factionalism over the issue of same-sex unions is a key factor in the problems the Nominations Commission is having in making appointments.
There are also conservative members of the selection panel opposed to the idea of women bishops, another issue that has long divided the Church.
Neither of these underlying influences was addressed directly at the emergency meeting of the House of Bishops, where the focus was all on the process of selection.
“There was a lot of fear in the discussion,” one senior bishop who did not want to be named told the .
“The elephant in the room was about power and who exercises it and the Church’s continued inability to address openly and honestly matters of gender and sexuality,” the bishop said.
Instead, the bishops looked purely at procedural solutions that might alleviate the current crisis, ultimately voting to pass new measures.
They included the removal of the “secret” nature of the ballot to decide on a new bishop, and also a lowering of the vote threshold and allowing the presiding archbishop on the panel an extra vote if there is still deadlock.
But the vote by these, the most senior members of the Church, was not unanimous with a 27-9 split. A result along the same lines as the numbers among the group known to support and oppose same-sex blessings.
Those bishops opposed to the selection panel changes said in discussion that the new moves risked looking like a power-grab by the archbishops and could be perceived as being undemocratic.
But the measures passed also still need ratifying by the wider Church at its General Synod. That assembly is where the splits are likely to be thrown open much more plainly.
Recent meetings have often been characterised by acrimony and deep division. It is division that now appears to be having an impact on the workings of the Church.
