Just saw this linked from Thinking Anglicans:

Link: Church rebels plan £1bn property grab – Sunday Times – Times Online.

TRADITIONALISTS in the Church of England are preparing for a possible breakaway over women bishops by taking legal advice on whether they could claim property worth more than £1 billion.

John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham and leader of the traditionalist group Forward in Faith, has commissioned a QC to assess the implications of the move.

The lawyer has told him that if parishes that object to women bishops withdrew from the church, local bishops would have no power to take over their churches and vicarages.

Instead, parish priests themselves may be able to assert freehold rights and it is possible that only parliament would be able to resolve the deadlock. Traditionalists claim to control parishes containing about 10% of the church’s roughly £10 billion-worth of church buildings, church halls and vicarages.

This is just so depressing. I had hoped that this sort of successionism was a uniquely American idea. It’s either spreading, or it’s come to us from abroad. Either way, why do folks think it’s acceptable to use blackmail if a vote goes against them?

As a friend of mine in England just noted, “This is about to get a whole lot nastier.”