The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who chaired the working party that examined the theology of women bishops, said that the evidence from the Bible and the Church Fathers indicated clearly that women exercised leadership in the early Church.

"No one reading the history of the Church can fail to be impressed with the apostolate exercised by faithful women down the centuries," he said.

Regarding the timing of the debate, he said: "There are those who feel that, as a matter of justice, women priests should now be eligible for episcopal appointments and the Church's credibility is being damaged, both among her own members and in the world, because of the bar on women being bishops.

"There are others, however, who argue that now is not the right time. The Church is facing a number of serious issues which threaten to divide it. Is this really the time to introduce another cause of division?"

Christina Rees, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, the chairman of Watch, the successor to the Movement for the Ordination of Women which has campaigned for women bishops, said: "Contrary to what some say, by having women and men ministering together at all levels we will not be conforming to the world, but we will be most truly counter-cultural, showing what authentic equality is in a way that the world does not."

The first women priests were ordained in 1994, two years after the synod voted to ordain them but 19 years after it agreed, optimistically, that there were "no fundamental objections to the ordination of women to priesthood".

The intervening period was spent debating the many fundamental objections that subsequently emerged.

The move towards women bishops is expected to take far less time because most of the fundamental objectors have now left the synod, if not the Church. More than 720 priests have resigned, with 424 qualifying for compensation that cost the Church £26 million, the synod was told.

Their loss has been more than outweighed by the ordination of several thousand women, of whom more than 1,200 are now in stipendiary posts. In addition, 1,000 parishes, less than one tenth of the total, have passed a resolution stating that they will not accept a woman priest.

Any decision to ordain women bishops will have to incorporate a means of enabling such parishes to remain within the Church.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, moving the motion that the synod should debate the matter in July, said: "The starting point is of course that there remain deeply held divergent views on the underlying issues."

He disclosed that the Church's bishops have set up a group, chaired by the Bishop of Guildford, the Right Rev Christopher Hill, which will meet for the first time this week to examine the options for the legislation that will need to take into account the views of opponents as well as supporters.

END