(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121120-church-of-england-1105a.photoblog600.jpg)Yui Mok / Pool via APThe outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, center right, embraces an unidentified person after draft legislation introducing the first women bishops in the Church of England failed to receive final approval from the Church of England General Synod, at Church House in central London, on Nov. 20. By Becky Bratu, NBC NewsThe Church of England appears to be "willfully blind" to the rest of the world, outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams said Wednesday after the church's legislative body voted Tuesday against allowing women bishops.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) "Whatever the motivations for voting yesterday, whatever the theological principle on which people acted and spoke, the fact remains that a great deal of this discussion is not intelligible to our wider society - worse than that, it seems that we are willfully blind to some of the trends and priorities in that wider society," Williams said.
After hours of debate, bishops and clergy in the General Synod comfortably backed the change but lay members were four votes short of a two-thirds majority required in all three houses to pass the measure. Williams fears the church is busy engaging in a debate that mystifies much of the world, where women are seen as equal partners.
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