On Thursday the General Synod will consider the ordination of women in the Church of England. Caroline Phillips listens to both sides of a bitter argument

The controversial and extrovert Reverend Martin Flatman greeted me, wearing washing-up gloves. Labour voter and anti-nuke demonstrator, he believes in the equality of women: ‘My wife and I even share the washing up. ‘ But some, he says, might believe he is a male chauvinist – because he is against the ordination of women.

Father Flatman, 40, became a priest in 1972. He has been working in the parish of Cowley St John, Oxford for the past five years. He loves his job and might stay in it until he is 70. ‘Nobody can chuck me out unless I break the law,’ he chuckles. Yet he is anguished, suffering doubts. And all because of women.

‘I’d be forced out of my job. I’d probably end up without a home or an income, because there is no promise that there will be any compensation. ‘ Father Flatman recognizes that the day of such misjudgement may not be night for perhaps a decade. ‘In the meantime I suffer the uncertainties. ‘

In 1975, the General Synod decided that it had no fundamental objections, in principle, to the ordination of women into the priesthood. The debate has proceeded at elderly parson’s pace. But on Thursday the synod will consider a recent report from the Bishops, before the Church of England can set the legislative wheels in motion.

The fact that some people will find it impossible to remain within the Church if women are ordained – producing a schism perhaps on the same scale as the Reformation – will also be discussed. As will a code of practice and ‘safeguards’ for dissenters, such as conscience clauses and compensation.

In Father Flatman’s view it is a decision that should not be taken without much thought and prayer: ‘It is a fundamental change and one that assumes that the Church has been defective for the past 2,000 years. ‘ If women were forced on to him in the priesthood, he would leave, because he feels he wouldn’t be able to do the very thing he believes he has been called upon by God to do.

In fact, he would follow his wife’s precedent. She became disillusioned, ‘felt that the Church had lost its way’, and converted to Roman Catholicism. ‘She is right behind me and sick of all the agonizing,’ he says. ‘I wouldn’t be able to become a Catholic priest because I am married. And even if things changed, I don’t know whether they’d want me. ‘

Flatman’s primary objection to the ordination of women is that he could not accept a Church that severed itself from moves towards unity with the Catholics: ‘In effect, we would be saying ‘snooks to you’ to the great church of western Christendom. ‘Such a fundamental change to the belief and practice of the Church should only, he thinks, be effected with the weight of the whole of Christendom behind it.

Father Flatman says that the Bible shows men and women to be different. ‘Sadly that has often been taken to mean women are inferior, which they are not. They are equal and complementary, with different God-given roles in the Church. As such, women play significantly roles without being priests. ‘

He maintains that the Equal Opportunities bandwagon – ‘a very small part of a larger question’ – has shrouded these profound truths. ‘If you want to have a balanced society, it is very dangerous to push women into everything that men do and vice versa. I don’t want men to push women into their place. But I dislike the tendency to make women into ‘pretend’ men, to form an hermaphrodite society. ‘

He rebuffs the argument that a Church lacking women priests fails to represent humanity as a whole: to believe that, he says, would be to believe that the only people who represent humanity are priests.

In the United States women can be ordained as priests and, he warns, they cannot get jobs. ‘Christians like the idea of having women as priests – but they don’t want a woman as their priest. If the parishes have a choice, they tend to choose men. ‘

Deaconess Anthea Williams, 37, says: ‘Women should have been ordained long ago. I’m prepared to stick to my guns. No one will sway me. ‘

Deaconess Williams grew up in a vicarage. ‘That’s where I learned my role models,’ she says ‘I found out that women could work full-time in the Church. ‘

At the age of 24 she became a parish worker, and at 30 she was made deaconess. She has been ‘very happily’ married for six years and now works in her St Mary’s Maidstone parish in Kent. As a deaconess, she is the closest thing to a priest, yet not officially ordained.

She is to become a deacon, one of the first, on Friday, and as such she will be able to perform marriage ceremonies. But she feels angry that she lacks the authority to participate fully in the work of her parish.

Her parishioners suffers, she says. ‘I have the sort of relationship with people that would make a lot of sense of ordination. If people die, I bury them. I baptize their babies. When we come together on Sunday morning, it would be logical to celebrate Communion with them. It is frustrating having to defer to someone else for that. ‘ Neither can she pronounce absolution nor bless people.

Unlike Flatman, whatever happens, Deaconess Williams will not leave the Church. She believes that people who threaten to do so are scaremongering and childish. ‘If you have a commitment to something, you stick with it – even if it gives you up. It’s puerile to say, ‘If the game doesn’t go my way, I’m going to leave’.’

She is unmoved by the issue of the unity of the Church. ‘People get terribly worried and frightened about schisms. But there is going to be a rift either way. And there’s nothing that terrible about splitting. Unless women are prepared to be noncomformist, they have no spiritual home to go to. ‘

In her view people who obstruct the ordination of women are misguided and standing in the way of the Holy Spirit. ‘They adduce theological arguments in support of things that are not proven. It is perverse to suggest things that are not obviously true.

‘There is more evidence to suggest that ordination would be fruitful than that it wouldn’t. Many women are already behaving like people who have been ordained as priests, performing well in ministerial roles – and we have to justify why it hasn’t been done for them. ‘

She dismisses theoretical considerations, particularly the belief that because Jesus was male only men can be priests. ‘It is disgusting the way Jesus gets dragged in to justify a particular way of ordering the Church. The Bible is not a book of legal precedent, it simply lays down guidelines. She maintains that the way the Church is organized affects what people believe about God. ‘Any merits of being of the same sex as Jesus are greatly outweighed by the pastoral advantages of the message women can deliver. If women are excluded from ordination, the implicit message is that it is not OK to be a woman. ‘

In common with Flatman, Williams believes that the sexes have complementary roles to play. ‘It’s just wishful thinking on the part of the ‘antis’ to say that women have their part to play outside the priesthood. The differences in the sexes will be more clearly seen when women are ordained. Then we will be able to see clearly the different ways in which they exercise their priesthood. ‘ She says that some people would prefer a woman, ‘just as they choose a woman doctor’.

Deaconess Williams claims that the ordination of women in the US has been a success: ‘Women priests are spreading like wildfire. There are very few places now where they aren’t welcome. And they are not just foisted on to a parish. They have to be chosen for the job – which means that they are securing employment against male competition. ‘