Campaigners calling for women bishops to be allowed in the Church of England will continue their fight in a debate at the meeting of the General Synod.
It could bring about the start of a legal process that may eventually lead to women bishops being accepted.
Opponents believe there is no Biblical precedent for women bishops, as Christ's apostles were all men.
The Church's first female priests were ordained in 1994. Some argue that it is unfair to bar them from the episcopate.
Delegates at the Synod's four-day February Sessions will vote on whether to allow the issue of women bishops to be discussed further in July.
It is at that meeting that they would decide whether or not to start the legislative process necessary to allow the change.
Synod debate
A debate on a report by the House of Bishops working party into the theological arguments around the ordination of women bishops, which was published last year, will begin the day.
Delegates will later vote on a motion calling for further time for discussion.
If that request is denied, the process will be halted.
However, if supporters of the change win, the more important poll - on whether to set the legislative train in motion - will be taken in July.
But even if the move were approved, it would be likely to be about a decade before any women became bishops.
Canon John Riches, of the Scottish Episcopal Church - which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion - said: "There has been a growing sense that ordaining women is not so obviously against theological tradition and reason."
Rochester Report
The Rochester Report, which was published in November last year, examined the options facing the Church but did not come down in favour of either side on the contentious issue.
It also considered what arrangements, if any, would have to be made for those within the Church who could not conscientiously accept women bishops.
One option put forward involved the creation of another province for such people.
The debate marks another source of tension among Anglicans whose conservative and liberal wings are already split over the issue of homosexuality.