Church of England leaders propose female bishops by 2015 The Church of England's General Synod last year. The bishops of the Church of England have published a plan to consecrate female bishops by 2015, after the defeat of legislation last autumn. It would end 20 years of bitter struggle with a clear decision in favour of progress. The proposals, published on Friday and backed by both archbishops, offer a nearly complete victory for the female clergy and their supporters outraged by the failure of the earlier legislation. The "flying bishops" appointed specially to serve opponents of female bishops are to be abolished, although there is a vague guarantee that in future there will be appointments of some bishops who are both male and opposed to the existence of female priests and bishops. The Rev Miranda Threlfall Holmes, a noted campaigner for female bishops, said: "We're not trying to squeeze them out." But these opponents will have to accept that women can become, the bishops say, "the true and lawful holders of their office" and that "the Church of England has reached a clear decision on the matter." Parishes where a majority are opposed to the ordination of women would still be able to reject both female priests and bishops, but their rights would no longer be protected in law and, since they are a tiny and dwindling minority in most of the country, are unlikely often to be exercised. Reflecting the frustration felt throughout the church with the 20 years of niggling bureaucratic struggle since female priests were created in 1993, the report says: "There is a determination among the majority to prevent any reappearance of the tendency shown in the past by some traditionalists to use the provisions of the 1993 Measure and the Act of Synod to create as much distance as possible from the rest of the Church of England."