Today my friend and partner in the Gospel Stephanie Nash will be preaching at Second B. I am grateful for her many gifts and glad that I am a part of a church which believes in the role of women in ministry.
This leads me to reflect on the continually developing role of women clergy in the Church of England.
Just before my arrival here in July, the Rev. Joyce Bennett passed away at 92 years old. English by birth, Bennett was sent as a missionary to Hong Kong in 1949 and was ordained by the Hong Kong branch of the Anglican Communion in 1971. After her ordination, she returned to England and shepherded a Chinese immigrant congregation inside St Martin in the Fields.
Though Bennett kept a low profile when at first back home -- she had the title "Reverend" printed on her business cards only in Chinese and not in English -- eventually she became more public. In 1986 she presided over Eucharist a well-publicized meeting of the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW), which led to denunciation from much of the Anglican hierarchy. But the tide was turning and as I have made my way in and out of churches all over England women priests are everywhere.
I like what I read Christina Rees, of WATCH (Women And The Church), an advocate for women clergy in England and a friend of Bennett's said about Bennett upon her passing:
"Because she was such a lovely, measured, and inspirational person, she didn't just make women's ordination look like a good thing. She made it look normal, which was the best thing she could have done for the church."
That sense of normalcy did indeed help change things here in England -- and dramatically so. In January of this year Libby Lane was consecrated bishop of Stockport and the first female bishop in England.
Of course, not everyone is on board with female priests. There was what looked to be a dramatic scene at Lane's consecration where a clergyman interrupted the proceeding, saying "not in the Bible." (Watch here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30974547) But Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who was presiding over the service was prepared and handled the whole affair with dignity and repose -- the patently British way indeed.
All this brings me to a quote from Canon Angela Tilby, who will be the program (or as they spell it here, "programme") director for my time in Oxford. Preaching at a service at St Paul's Cathedral marking 10 years of ordination in the Church of England, Tilby said, "Women priests have not unhinged the world."
No, they haven't. They've just made it all look normal.
That's what Stephanie will do today too I'm sure.
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