Congratulations to new Bishop of Waikato & Taranaki

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/new-bishop-makes-history-5846746
I am not sure if the vieo can be viewed outside of NZ.

The first English woman to become a bishop was ordained in Hamilton today.
Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley today became one of three female bishops in the Anglican Church in New Zealand, and the second to be ordained here.
She also became the first ever female priest trained in the Church of England to be ordained as a bishop.
Dr Hartley could not have taken this step in her home country of England, where the Church is still debating whether it wants to allow women to be bishops.
"They will get there, and they will get there soon, and I hope today will be an encouragement for all those people who are working hard for the ordination of women," she says.
But Dr Hartley says she didn't move to New Zealand to break any glass ceiling in the church.
"This is not a career move or ambition, it is a calling that the church and God had bestowed upon me," says the new bishop of Waikato and Taranaki.
However, she admits it does send a very public message.

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"It is significant, it is an affirmation that this is a job that men and women can do equally," she says.
"This is a huge day, this is a life-changing day in many ways."
Dr Hartley would not be drawn on whether gay and lesbian worshippers should be able to be ordained, saying that is something for the Church to debate and decide on.

I am not surprised at her final comment but do note the interest in the media on the matter of LGBT acceptance in the church. We wait until General Synod in May.

My own bishop, whose wife features prominently in the video, holds the same line despite his previous sermons on the matter.
I have already stated that I would not worship in England until they allow women to be bishops which is not much of a threat since I have no plans to visit before 2016 but after the recent deplorable statement by the English bishops I still might only enter churches and cathedrals as a tourist unless there are major developments in that time.

The best of a bad choice

I think.

But who knows in Sydney Diocese?

It has been announced that Bishop Glenn Davies of North Sydney is to be the next Archbishop of Sydney.  He is 62, so will have to retire in 8 years whereas the other candidate was only 49 and the diocese could have been stuck with him for 21 years although he apparently said he would only stay for 15.
it seems Dean Philip Jensen was campaigning for the alternative and wrote some on the surface polite criticisms of Bishop Davies. That would be the obvious reason for me to prefer Davies. I have written elsewhere that I knew Philip at University and even in those days did not like him and actually told him once he was not a real Anglican.  I think he was pleased.  It would be great if he was soon sacked but, of course, that will not happen but he is only a year younger than me so will soon be 70.
I also read there is an emergent generation of bright young, evangelicals, now in their early 40s, who are still conservative but seem to think for themselves.  Philip must be losing his touch.

Both candidates oppose any teaching role for women in the church. they also agreed they would continue to license women to preach if a parish asked them to, but they would not encourage the practice. Women can only lead Bible studies if a man leads too. If the man was sick, Glenn added, then you would not necessarily need to cancel.

I just find this unbelievable. 

In my youth when I was still an evangelical and the idea of women being ordained was just surfacing.  I am pleased to remember that I was in favour.  I remember arguing with my then rector. He was an old school evangelical. He once reprimanded me that, although I spent most of Sunday at the church with sunday school teaching, Christian Endeavour, afternoon meetings, Youth fellowship and Evening Prayer, I rarely attended 8am Holy Communion so only took Communion once a month in the evening.  In other words, I had imbibed the Evangelical view that preaching was more important than the sacraments.

He was not theologically opposed to women teaching/preaching but believed that if women became priests, men would leave the running of the church to them.

I felt he would be turning in his grave last Sunday.  

In my church in Roslyn, Dunedin, the vicar is on leave.  

At our service last Sunday, our woman associate priest presided and preached. As Jo was ordained while I was in Rome,  it was the first time I have been present when she has presided at the Eucharist so was a time of joy for me.  Barbara, our deacon and a good friend, read the Gospel and carried out the other deacon's duties. Both lessons were read by laywomen  and the prayers of the faithful were led by Verna, the parish licensed lay minister.

A young boy was the crucifer and altar assistant and I think our male church warden assisted with the distribution so some males were involved. :-)

I can find nothing Christlike in those who deny women roles in the church. The current situation in England with flying bishops and no women bishops is ridiculous and, of course, I do not see why any young person, especially women, would be attracted to belong to churches in the Diocese of Sydney except the handful of Anglo-catholic parishes such as St James, King Street.

Roman offer to Anglican dissidents

My small addition to this furore from our local paper.
First a letter from a Catholic priest in Sydney (not sure he will have impressed his boss, Cardinal Pell)

As a Catholic priest I shudder when I read that people might want to join the Catholic Church because they find their own too inclusive . Certainly the Catholic Church itself has a long way to go regarding inclusiveness, but the last thing it needs is more people who are anti-women, anti-gay or anti-anybody.

Father John Crothers Penshurst

and then an article from Dr Muriel Porter. Muriel is a journalist but also is a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia and has been a leader in the fight for women priests and bishops in the Australian  church. She is has written a book The New Puritans: the rise of fundamentalism in the Anglican Church describing the activities of the Sydney Diocese.  I have heard her preach at St James.

The Vatican finally gets its revenge on Henry VIII

It concludes (my bold) - But the emergence of women bishops has persuaded Rome to give them Anglican parishes within a Catholic world order. From the Roman perspective, it is a means of demonstrating to its own restive nuns and lay women that there is no hope of female equality in the foreseeable future. It may, however, lead to some heart-searching for Catholics concerned about the impact that priestly celibacy continues to have on their Church. How can it be unacceptable for home-grown clergy to marry but quite OK for the imports from Anglicanism?

It will be interesting to see how many Anglican clergy and laity actually go over to Rome. The Anglican Church has a much more democratic polity than the Catholic Church. Anglican vicars and parishes have a significant degree of autonomy and Anglicans have decision-making powers through diocesan and national synods. They participate in the election of their bishops. They help decide how church finances will be spent. Will they adjust easily to the complete obedience required by Papal autocracy?

Is it any wonder that the strident voices of atheism are attractive to contemporary people when churches split apart over the irrational fear of the feminine?

You go girls - but don't expect things to change

Great article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Jane Richards.
While it is applied to Roman Catholicism, it is also true of some Anglo-catholic dioceses and their unholy union with the evango-fundies running Sydney Diocese.

St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican 2002: we paused in front of the strangely compelling body of a dead pope in a glass coffin when we heard it: shuffle shuffle squeak, shuffle shuffle squeak. From across a vast chamber they headed towards us - a dozen or so priests walking single file through the bowels of the cavernous church on their way to some meeting, some ceremony. The shuffle? The sound their gorgeous robes made as they billowed around their ankles. The squeak? It emanated from a tea trolley pushed with a lot of effort by a bent-up old nun bringing up the rear.

Typical, I huffed. Catholicism in a nutshell. The sight of that nun seemed to sum up how nuns were treated by a church that could not run without them. The nuns did the hard slog and the priests got all the glory - this was so drummed into the Catholic girls I went to school with that it was treated as fact. The sun rose in the east and the priests got the good cake at afternoon tea. The message to nuns from the church seemed to be: by all means push those tea trolleys, nurse those lepers and teach those brats - just don't go thinking you will ever be able to say Mass.

Continues.

His Master's Voice?

Curiosity made me research Bishop David Mulready of the Anglican Diocese of North-West Australia and I found this just posted today referring to an ABC interview of a few days ago.
Women are prohibited from leadership in the Anglican Church, he said, because the Bible says so.

He quoted this passage, from Paul’s first Letter to Timothy: “Women should learn in silence and all humility. I do not allow them to teach or to have authority over men; they must be quiet.” The passage goes on to say: “For Adam was created first, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and broke God’s law.”

But he adds kindly: “But a woman will be saved through having children, if she perseveres in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”
Nuff said. Quite obvious that he is a graduate of Moore College. Also I note all his new priests, sorry presbyters, come from Sydney.
The Diocese claims to be the largest in area in the Anglican church, however it only has 18 parishes and most of them are supported by funds from Sydney so I guess we can see Mulready head for Gafcon not Lambeth.