Comment

Abstract

Whereas traditionally all Northern bishops in the Church of England have been invited to share in the laying on of hands at the consecration of new bishops for dioceses in the Province of York, when a bishop opposed to the ordination of women was consecrated in February 2015, a week after the first woman bishop had been consecrated, all but two carefully selected male bishops were asked to exercise ‘gracious restraint' and refrain from imposing hands. The author reflects on the significance and implications of this new pattern of participation.