Church of England poised to name first female bishop

Church of England clergy vote to accept female bishops at the General Synod last month. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Church of England will on Wednesday announce the appointment of its first female bishop, just four weeks after its General Synod voted for a historic law change.

The candidate, set to be named at 10am, will become bishop of Stockport. It is a relatively junior role, which will make her an assistant bishop in the diocese of Chester.

As a suffragan bishop, she will not be eligible to sit in the House of Lords – an honour reserved for only the most senior 26 of the church’s 43 diocesan bishops.

The government is preparing legislation making it possible for women chosen as diocesan bishops to queue-jump and take one of the 26 Lords places as soon as one is vacant, but women will not be chosen for those posts until the new year.

The 71 suffragan bishops are chosen directly by their diocesan bishops, without the months of committee deliberation required in other cases – allowing the new bishop to be named just four weeks after the change allowing female bishops.

The first diocese that could choose a woman as its bishop is Southwell and Nottingham, where two of the four shortlisted candidates are understood to be women.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has defended plans to select and groom a leadership pool in the church, consisting of 300 people who will be marked out for promotion and given managerial training. It is understood that this will be a way to ensure women are rapidly promoted through the church’s structures, but it has been attacked as a cheap imitation of failed corporate culture.

• The subheading on this story was amended on 17 December 2014. The original incorrectly stated that the first female bishop would be appointed on Monday.