The new plan, drawn up by the existing bishops and backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, will be presented to the General Synod in July.

The proposals would make allowances for traditionalists who oppose women clergy, a minority that blocked the reform at the last synod meeting, but each diocese will have to have a bishop willing to ordain women to the priesthood, it said.

Bishop Nigel Stock, chair of the working group drawing up the new proposals, said: ‘The Church of England should retain its defining characteristic of being a broad Church, capable of accommodating a wide range of theological convictions.’