Women in Church Leadership

An event that is unequivocally historic took place on Friday October 3^rd. The 106^th Archbishop of Canterbury was announced to the world, and she is a woman, the first in over 1,500 years of the office.  

The period in which my novel is set was before the first Archbishop of Canterbury - Augustine, who was seated in Canterbury around 598 - and so I fictionalized the earlier settlement there. I wrote of "Holy Trinity" church, and her clergy, who were teachers and evangelists to the local people. I painted a positive picture of the very early church in Britain, prior to the control exerted by the church in Rome, because I would like to believe that was the case.

I went to bed on Thursday before the announcement of the new Archbishop thinking that the Anglican Church would take the safe option and select one of the male candidates. But to my amazement, the nominating committee did not go with the safe option. I believe they were led by the Holy Spirit and selected Sarah Mullally, current bishop of London, to lead the Anglican church and its 84 million members, worldwide. I am rejoicing at their bravery and spirituality.

The response to Bishop Sarah’s selection has been predictable. The conservative wing of the church, geographically located mostly in Africa, announced that with this latest “heresy” the Anglican church as a worldwide entity is finished. Women, they claim, are specifically banned from church leadership by a couple of verses in the New Testament (I would add, and by millennia of misogyny), never mind that Jesus had female disciples, and the Apostle Paul encouraged and celebrated their leadership in other parts of the New Testament. This contentious subject can be easily researched if you are so inclined, heaven knows it's an old and tiresome argument, but what follows is my perspective.

Most of you know that I am an ordained priest in the Episcopal church, which is the Anglican church in the USA. (There was that little difference of opinion back in the 18^th century which led to our separation from Great Britain and the Church of England. Obviously, we did not want to continue to be the Church of England in the United States of America!) My seeking ordination was something that I initially resisted. There were several reasons for that reluctance, but when I first felt called into ordained ministry women were not being ordained. That was a problem. I was not and still am not a trail blazer, and so I stepped back. But by the time my family was grown I began to feel that calling again - strongly, and urgently, and although I had never been in a church with a female priest, I began to think that perhaps the church would be better off for the leadership of women, even my own leadership. And here I am.

But it was not without cost. My ordained ministry was under heavy scrutiny in some of the places I have lived and ministered, especially in the deep south. Though the parish that called me was warm, welcoming, and loving, there were other people from other denominations in town who gave me the evil eye as I walked past in the street. I was excluded from some “ecumenical” events because being a female clergy person was viewed as heretical and threatening. Mostly I ignored the ugliness and kept on praying for their souls, as I know they were praying for mine, bless their hearts!  

Obviously, I feel that women have gifts for the church and for the world. My childhood heroes included Joan of Arc, Boudicca of the Iceni, (despite her ferocity and cruelty) Indira Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth I and II, and later in life, Sister Helen Prejean who spoke at my younger daughter’s university graduation in New Orleans. There are many other women who gave me inspiration along the way, but sufficient to say that real, flesh and bone women of strength and integrity informed the characters of several of the women in my novel, especially Aethelreda and Blaedswith.

Being a woman in church leadership was never my desire. I was called into this role, and I have served as faithfully as I was able. I am grateful to all of those people, lay and ordained, male and female, who have supported me along the way.

And now, as Archbishop Elect Sarah adjusts to her new role as the leader of our church, I pray that she will be strong and faithful, that she will be a generous listener, espousing the dignity of every human being, and preaching nothing more nor less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.