He was one of 1,300 clergy who asked for a compromise to accommodate those opposed to women as bishops.
Now Fr Graham believes his church has been hijacked by "gimmicks and political correctness." "My church is barely recognisable today."
Yesterday the "hurt and disappointed" priest assured parishioners he would stay – but should any woman bishop darken his door he may have to move on.
That period of grace could last five years. Meantime only one of Blackburn Diocese's three bishops, Rt Rev Geoff Pearson (Lancaster) is prepared to ordain women as priests proper. The other two, Rt Rev Nicholas Reade (Blackburn), and John Goddard (Burnley) have both spoken against women bishops.
Fr Graham stresses: "Women are equal, Galatians makes that clear."
His difficulty rises from his core beliefs, as an Anglo-Catholic priest, a tradition which celebrates 175 years today.
"I've no intention of becoming a Roman Catholic. I'm proud to be an Anglo-Catholic, it is the middle way.
"My guess is women will be put in fairly senior positions quickly. The agenda is driven by liberals who don't know what the word means because they are so intolerant of other traditions. Synod should hang its head in shame."
Fr Graham has worked with women priests and as spiritual director to some but admits: "I could not work under a woman.
"I have never joined an anglo-catholic society that has campaigned against the ordination of women, nor am I a traditionalist. But I believe in one holy and apostolic church, I love that expression of catholic faith through the anglican tradition and rejoice in its diversity.
"It was stressed that in accepting women bishops the church would accept the many gifts they bring with them, yet the gifts of those who have served the church faithfully for many years in sacrificial priesthood have been cast aside and disregarded. I will serve for as long as my conscience allows."
lBLACKPOOL curate Rev Hilary Murphy, of Holy Trinity Church, Dean Street, Blackpool, got a lukewarm reception from some at her first posting."They've warmed to me since."
The former nurse, and divorced mother of two, turned to the church 10 years ago. "I was never religious, just compassionate."
Her own sons are now grown up. Hilary says she ignored her calling too long. As a young mum she saw a programme about the famine in Ethiopia and sold pretty much all she had to support the appeal. That was 29 years ago. She has since helped develop an orphanage in Tanzania.
Now she's off to South Africa to work in the townships. No careerist cleric, this. "I'm not a stereotypical priest, let alone bishop material.
"I want to get stuck in helping ordinary people in appalling situations. I can use my nursing skills as well as my faith to help others. All my life, my faith, has led to this point."
She'll be working as assistant priest in Bloemfontein Cathedral in the free state.
"I'll be the first woman at the cathedral and one of only 32 in a diocese as big as England.
"I'll be working with women and children impacted by HIV, the poor and marginalised.
"I have done my work here and must move on. It's been beneficial to me and I'll take those links with me. What I will do will be a drop in the ocean. But this is the new holocaust and the world is simply watching. I must do something.
"Christian women are called to serve, not to be doormats, and Christ came and lifted women up and made a huge statement in honouring women. We are not second class citizens, this is not an apartheid system, and we are equal in all ways, including within the church."
l Rev Ann Wren has fought the good fight for women's rights with the church. "Women coming in today don't know how much we have striven for this," she says. "It has been my lifetime in coming."
Ann works with her husband, Rev Christopher, at St Paul's, Marton. She is deacon – lowest rung on the clergy ladder. He is vicar.
Ann was a deaconess, in 1985, before the church accepted women into the priesthood. She was one of the first to become a deacon, proper, after the church took the tentative first step towards equality, in 1987. It was 1992 before women were ordained priests.
She was the first female canon at Durham Cathedral in 900 years. She also led the women's ministry, upon the ordination of women as priests, proper, in Durham in the 1990s.
Ann served with a woman bishop in Canada, when on sabbatical in the 1990s.
She chose to stay a deacon. "it's my calling, to work in the community, I was not called to be a parish priest," but she would stand by a woman's right to be a bishop.
Ann suspects opposition to women as bishops comes "from guts rather than God, although it's for the greater good of the church.
"They've had years to get used to the idea. Our system needs to grow up. I've only once been refused in officiating. And that was at a funeral – it didn't upset me at all.
"This is a huge change for the church, we're talking 2,000 years of history. Most are appreciative of us, others don't accept our right to be here. The thought of a woman in charge is a far bigger challenge than a woman at the altar.
"Many are trapped by their beliefs, others will become Roman Catholics, but I wish they'd give it – and us – a chance.."
l Father Geoff Bottoms
defected from the Anglicans back in the '90s. Now the catholic priest at Our Lady of the Assumption, Marton, says: "I left not because of the ordination of women but because of lack of authority. The Church of England didn't know what it believed or where it stood – even today if you talk to an anglican, you'll never get the same answer twice.
"Take this compromise on women bishops– what does it really mean? I don't have a problem with the ordination of women but when one church does what the methodists and baptists have been doing for donkey's years, yet claims to be part of the holy apostolic church, foundations just crumble. I feel more secure here. I was black and white as an anglican and once I became more secure in my faith, I became more liberal because I know who I am, where I am, and what my church stands for. That said, the very best priest I ever worked with was a woman – an anglican chaplain at Victoria Hospital."

jacqui.morley@blackpoolgazette.co.uk