AFP - The Church of England published draft legislation Monday that could allow the ordination of women bishops -- an issue that has provoked deep splits among Anglicans.
  
The proposed measures will go up for debate by the church's General Synod governing body at a meeting in February.
  
General Synod members voted in July to press ahead with legislation to introduce women bishops despite threats by more than 1,300 clergy to quit over the issue if satisfactory safeguards were not put in place.
  
The Anglican church is divided between conservatives who argue that allowing gay and women bishops goes against Bible teachings, and liberals who want a more inclusive communion.
  
Under the draft legislation, male "complementary bishops" would be nominated to minister to those parishes objecting to women bishops.
  
The Church of England has warned that the legislation process would mean that there is unlikely to be a female bishop installed before 2014.
  
Christina Rees, of the pro-female ordination group Women And The Church, said: "It contains the legislation that will make it possible for women to be bishops.
  
"At least we have draft legislation and it is very good news."
  
The Church of England, led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has about 77 million followers.
  
It first ordained women priests in 1994 amid a storm of controversy.
  
Liberal and conservative Anglicans have been at odds since the US Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay priest, Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, and Barbara Harris as the US church's first female bishop in 1989.
  
The Vatican has warned that any decision to allow the ordination of women bishops could harm reconciliation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics.