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| Ven Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell, Archdeacon of Portsdown Source: Premiere |
The Ven Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell, Archdeacon of Portsdown, is one of three new women bishops appointed on the same day last week bringing the total number of women bishops in the Church of England to 22, four years after Rt Rev Libby Lane was named Bishop of Stockport in the Diocese of Chester.
Dr Grenfell was appointed Bishop of Stepney, which covers Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
One of her first utterances following preferment sounds like another female cleric playing the victim card to hide the truth about the ordination of women.
Islington's first female bishop said "she feels the pressure not to 'mess up' as she talked about her years spent building relationships with churches that are 'hostile' to women’s ministry."
Churches are not hostile to women's ministry, only to their standing at the Altar in persona Christi. Women do not have to be ordained to have a ministry.
The secular press constantly implies unfairness by referring to employment practice and equality of opportunity without any knowledge of the Church.
Writing about a "Sydney reverend", from ABC Newcastle News: "If you are a woman with hopes of becoming a priest within the Anglican Church of Australia there are a number of dioceses across the country that will allow you to climb the ranks and hold this leadership position." Commenting "Reverend Sawyer" said "there is more work to be done to achieve equality among church leaders."
Unusually there is an explanation of the problem from Archdeacon of Women's Ministry, Kara Hartley, who believes women have plenty of opportunities within the Anglican Church: "It comes down to our understanding that the leadership of priests and bishops in the church is given over to men, it's a reading of theological understanding, a reading of the Bible and so we continue to hold to that," she said.
Kara said she cannot predict what will happen in the future but there is no appetite for this to change. "That doesn't lessen or create inequality between men and women and I think that's an important distinction to make — we don't see a rising through ranks of church life as somehow making people more or less equal," she said.
The secular press constantly implies unfairness by referring to employment practice and equality of opportunity without any knowledge of the Church.
Writing about a "Sydney reverend", from ABC Newcastle News: "If you are a woman with hopes of becoming a priest within the Anglican Church of Australia there are a number of dioceses across the country that will allow you to climb the ranks and hold this leadership position." Commenting "Reverend Sawyer" said "there is more work to be done to achieve equality among church leaders."
Unusually there is an explanation of the problem from Archdeacon of Women's Ministry, Kara Hartley, who believes women have plenty of opportunities within the Anglican Church: "It comes down to our understanding that the leadership of priests and bishops in the church is given over to men, it's a reading of theological understanding, a reading of the Bible and so we continue to hold to that," she said.
Kara said she cannot predict what will happen in the future but there is no appetite for this to change. "That doesn't lessen or create inequality between men and women and I think that's an important distinction to make — we don't see a rising through ranks of church life as somehow making people more or less equal," she said.
Latest figures for the Church of England show that more than half the total of people recommended for training as clergy (54%) are women. Nearly a quarter (23%) of paid clergy in senior posts, Bishops, Cathedral Deans or Archdeacons were women in 2017, compared to 12% in 2012.
In the Church in Wales where a third of the diocesan bishops are women with early hopes of parity despite the dismal performance of the first two women bishops, the hostile Archdeacon of Llandaff, the Ven Peggy Jackson, claimed in a debate designed to rid the Church in Wales of 'traditionalist', orthodox Anglicans that women ordinands were treated badly.
Expecting to be taken at face value, an ordinand rebutted Jackson’s claim that women had to suffer for their calling because their vocation was disputed and dismissed by traditionalists. He had spoken to every current female ordinand in the Church in Wales and reported that all had told him that they had never experienced discrimination claimed by Jackson.
This is where hostility exists in the Church. Despite all the promises, constant efforts are made to exclude traditionalists by any means possible, including deception.
A sense of pressure, then. is not confined to women's ministry. If they are confident that they are right in their calling they should have the courage to be honest and present the facts, not emotive words such as hostility, prejudice, misogyny, etc, designed to influence supporters of their 'equality' campaign when they have little or no interest whatsoever in priestly ministry.
I understand that ONE third of the Bishops in Wales are Bishopettes AB.
ReplyDeleteOr are some of the others 'trans' and you know something I don't?
Oops, another senior moment! Thank you Mrs Slocombe I have corrected the error.
DeletePeggy Jackson was reported in the Church Times as saying her motion was 'misinterpreted' as an attack on traditionalists. This is one of the problems with senior leadership in many walks of life, obfuscation and reinterpreting one's clear intentions when they come under scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteArchdeacon, you wanted to bring in a ruling that would exterminate traditionalists from the ordained ministry in the Church in Wales? if that is not an attack then please tell, what would qualify as one?
Stop the double-talk and admit that is what you intended. Priests should tell the truth.
The Archdeaconesse has more faces than a clock tower and is a liar and not to be believed on anything unless independent verification is available.
DeleteThe ears in the walls report that Caiaphas was attending a concert at St. Teilo's last night, apologising, press the flesh and attempting to build bridges with those she attempted to screw over in the Holy Trinity Brompton outrage.
Rumour has it that Peggy the Pilate was behind that fiasco and the Bishopette has discovered the hard way that the Archdeaconesse is not to be trusted.
The dinner seating plan at Santiago next week should make for interesting reading.
Ms. Jackson has a reputation as being economical with the truth. Another Archdeacon has posted a prayer for the diocese of Monmouth during its interregnum. Mmmmmm. God Bless our Archdeacons.😎
ReplyDeleteDr Grenfell (PhD in English literature, some aspect of Edmund Spenser, if I recall correctly) skipped a year of theological training so she could be ordained at the same time as her husband. She has always had an air of superiority, as the Stepney clergy are about to find out and, when a theological student, gave the distinct impression that she had nothing new to learn. That's interesting because, she arrived at her chosen clergy finishing school in Cambridge with no theological qualifications, and promptly side-stepped the requirement that non-theology graduates under the age of 30 should do three years of training and formation. Mind you, at least she did train residentially, unlike some recent episcopal appointees (London and Southampton, for example).
ReplyDeleteIf Dr Grenfell had spent any time engaging at depth with "churches hostile to womens' ordination" I think she would not be using that kind of language. Most traditionalist Catholics I know are not hostile: they simply remain to be convinced by the arguments that women should be ordained when (a) there is a lack of universal consensus for this development; and (b) the majority of the world's Christians remain to be convinced that this is a legitimate development of the tradition. That's not hostility. It is a commitment to be led into new truth in company with as many others as possible, rather than breaking off into the kind of sectarianism so beloved of Peggy the Pilate.