A Paper Presented by Archdeacon Dr Colleen O’Reilly AM

for the MOW Conference, Brisbane 28-30 November 2024

Early this morning, 1 January 2049, three minutes after midnight the last woman ever to be ordained has died.  If the first reports are to be believed, she died as she lived, anointing herself with the last drops of oil to be set aside by a woman bishop, praying from the last surviving copy of the 1995 A Prayer Book for Australia. 

Do you recognise this reference to PD James’ dystopian novel, The Children of Men?[1]  James imagines a world in which no children have been born for 25 years.  She begins her narrative with the death of the last known child to be born.  Due to universal human infertility, it is a world on the brink of collapse.  All hope for the future of humanity has evaporated.  The old are despairing and the young are cruel.

Does anyone imagine an Anglican Church in which women are no longer ordained?  There are certainly those who believe they must continue to oppose the ordination of women priests and bishops.  Is there a real threat of the practice being overturned?  I do not believe so, but it seems we must continue to contend the issue and work for the fullest acceptance of ordained women in those places where it happens.  In this talk I will consider the current situation for women as reported in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese and propose some ways ahead.

There is now nothing novel about ordained women.  Women have been ordained in the Anglican Communion since 1944.  The Reverend Li Tim-Oi, a Chinese woman in deacons’ orders, was ordained during wartime to care for the people of the neutral territory of Macau.[2]  In 1971 two more women were ordained in Hong Kong.[3]  In 1974 the group that became known as ‘the Philadelphia Eleven’ was ordained in the eponymous American city by retired bishops.[4]  Among the eleven was an Australian woman, Alison Cheek, who had lived in the United States for many years.  She became well known to the members of the Movement of the Ordination of Women (MOW) here and her trips home were influential in MOW’s advocacy for women clergy.

In Australia, women have been able to respond to a vocation to diaconate since 1986, to priesthood since 1992, and to the episcopate since 2007.  Could there be a day coming when there are no more women leaders in the Anglican Church of Australia, or only in a few outlying dioceses?

I don’t believe so.  However, if we do not want such a future, we need to be courageous now and call out behaviours that disrespect ordained women.  We must name attitudes that deter women called to ministry who are currently facing ‘pushback’ or doubting the validity of their vocation.

The Presbyterian Church in Australia rescinded its 1974 decision to ordain women in 1991.  Sadly, they are a tiny rump in Australia of a tradition that in Scotland is a lively and engaging national Church.  There is, however, good ecumenical news to tell.  Earlier this year the Australian Lutheran Church received a report on restructuring ministry.  In twelve pages of carefully considered issues relating to the lack of ordained leaders, there was not one mention of women.[5]  At first, I was dismayed.  However, the omission was a clever way of speaking about ministry without pronouns!  In October this year the Lutheran Church of Australia/New Zealand removed the prohibition on ordaining women to pastoral ministry, a decision that had been debated and rejected for decades until now.[6]  The Roman Catholic Church may be considering women deacons in a few places, and there is support for women priests in many others, but no one here today is likely to live to see such ordinations.

Momentum is sometimes surprising.  The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa recently ordained Angelic Molen, a Zimbabwean woman to the diaconate, to exercise the full liturgical, sacramental and pastoral ministry of that office.[7]  This is, of course, a return to ancient custom.  Apart from the intrinsic value of women’s ministry, women deacons were necessary for the sake of propriety to conduct the full immersion baptisms and anointings of unclad women’s bodies, the more robust practice in the early Church.

Are patriarchal beliefs and practices so entrenched in the Anglican Church that overcoming them completely is unimaginable?  Or is it always one step forward and then push back before change is embedded in an organisation?  These are questions to be considered alongside all the other challenges now facing the Australian Anglican Church.

Truth to tell, all mainstream churches are in decline.  You don’t need me to rehearse the statistics to know the truth of that.  We are living this reality.  Just briefly, let’s recall the self-reporting on religion in the 2021 Census: 43.9% identified as Christian.  From 2016 to 2021, Anglican affiliation had the largest drop in number of all religious denominations, from 3.1 million to 2.5 million people.  This was a decrease from 13.3% to 9.8% of the population.[8]  This decline is everywhere, even in Sydney, which reports an overall decline of 14% when adjusted for population change.

Numbers offering for ordained ministry, men and women are also dropping, and the situation for women deserves our best attention.  In September this year, the Synod of Canberra and Goulburn Diocese received a report, Addressing Disparity: listening to the leadership experience of ordained women in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese.[9]  It makes for sad reading.  Let me quote from the Executive Summary,

The evidence gathered in this report indicates that the capacity of the Diocese to build partnerships with women for ministerial leadership appears to have regressed rather than advanced.

The reality that the Report has uncovered is that cultural barriers patronising or even hostile to women’s leadership have emerged in a previously egalitarian ethos.  The situation for women in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese has regressed.  The Report noted the failure to provide ‘safe, even attractive workplaces with adequate supports, conditions, and realistic expectations’ and that there is a frequent, possibly sometimes unconscious bias against women’s full participation.  Gendered assumptions about clergy life add to making church leadership unattractive to women, compared to other vocational opportunities.

The power of conservatism is growing, or more accurately the division in western societies between reactionary and progressive positions on many social issues is shifting to the right, especially those relating to women.  We need to be alert to the ways in which this shift will influence future decisions in the Church.  Canberra and Goulburn Diocese is not alone in what they have uncovered, even if others have not documented it so clearly.  Despite bright spots, there is stagnation and decline in the number of women ordinands and in leadership in Australia and internationally.

Many of the women interviewed, or who took part in focus groups, spoke about the ‘blokey culture’ that has developed with the influx of younger men from outside the Diocese.  In some cases, these men hold a theology of so called ‘headship’ once unusual in Canberra and Goulburn but now increasingly expressed.  Furthermore, bishops and other senior leaders often fail to take seriously the expressions of bias against women and even the disrespect for their female colleagues that some ordained men display in clergy gatherings.

External organisations are influencing this situation, as well as the impact in the wider culture of what, at its most extreme, is called the ‘mano-sphere’, the idea that changes in men’s social and economic status are the result of the emergence women’s fullest participation in the workplace.[10]  The mano-sphere is a ‘fresh expression’ of patriarchy, an attempt to create divisive and even violent underpinnings for a new culture of patriarchy in the western world.

Though not referred to in the Report, the influence of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES), active in tertiary institutions, should not be underestimated.  Based in Sydney, operating throughout Australia, and linked to similar groups internationally, the AFES Doctrinal Basis states belief in,

the divine inspiration and infallibility (emphasis mine) of Holy Scripture as originally given and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.[11]

The AFES influences young people at a formative stage of adult life with its teaching about gendered roles, and it is from their members that young male ordinands often come.

The Report provides a summary of research that supports this finding and lists those steps researchers recommend for remedying it.  Following receipt of the Report, the Canberra and Goulburn Synod has put in place a Women in Leadership Commission.  The Chair is Bishop Vanessa Bennett,[12] the assistant bishop in the diocese, and it is to be in place for no less than five years to address the complex issues identified.  One purpose of the Commission is to ensure that the issues identified are received at the highest level of leadership.  Only this strategic and persistent approach to attitudes, processes and structures has any hope of turning things around.

It is no secret that Sydney Diocese has imposed itself on three of the NSW dioceses.  Armidale was ‘taken over’ in the 1960s in an intentional process documented by Professor Thomas Fudge of the University of New England.  He was asked to give a lecture on the 125^th anniversary of the founding of one parish and ended up researching the shift from high Anglicanism to evangelical practice throughout the whole diocese, despite clergy and lay opposition at the time.[13]

By 2018 Bathurst Diocese had fallen upon hard financial times and the Diocese of Sydney effectively ‘bailed it out’ for the price of being able to control the appointment of the diocesan bishop.[14]  There are currently no women priests in active ministry in Bathurst Diocese, two retired women deacons and two retired priests.[15]  I do not know if this is matter or polity or prejudice.  The impact of Sydney clergy in Canberra and Goulburn is apparent in the Addressing Disparity Report.  Will this be Bathurst’s story before too long, or is it theirs already?

The powerhouse for the teaching and behaviours that hold women to be subordinate to men is Sydney Diocese and its Moore Theological College from which male clergy are sent throughout Australia.  To be fair, funding and staffing rural dioceses is becoming almost impossible.  Moore College graduates are willing to go beyond Sydney, largely funded by wealthy Sydney, energised by the belief that they alone teach the ‘truth’ and supported by affiliated agencies such as the Bush Church Aid Society.  Sydney Diocese has been playing a long game for a long time now.  Like the frog in hot water, the rest of us have been mostly oblivious to the process or naively thought it would be a benign solution to wicked problems.  The reality is that Sydney’s consistent teaching on what is called ‘the headship’ of men over women is not only failing to grow the Church but eroding the leadership of women everywhere within it.  Their argument that there is an order in creation that determines female subordination as integral to God’s vision for the world and the Church is present in the attitudes and practices of the ordained men they send to other dioceses.  This is identified in the Report as a key factor in the negative experiences of the ordained women in Canberra and Goulburn.

Could all this, if not challenged, lead to the eventual reversal of the General Synod Canons declaring the ordination of women as deacons and priests to be consistent with the 1961 Constitution, and the 2007 Opinion of the Appellate Tribunal that the Constitution’s definition of canonical fitness for episcopal office[16] did not exclude women?  There are now 13 Australian women who have been made bishops, some retired, and one, Barbara Darling,[17] has died.  The rest are in active ministry with one a diocesan bishop, Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy AO, and one, Bishop Genieve Blackwell,[18] to become the Administrator of a metropolitan diocese, Melbourne, during the forthcoming vacancy.

Although there are bishops who are women in the Church of England, the tardiness of the English Church in its appointment of women to senior posts, particularly to dioceses with a seat in the House of Lords, recently came to the attention of the House in a debate to extend the special provisions made in 2015 to enable women bishops to become members by altering the order of precedence.[19]  The House passed the Bill after some excellent and wide-ranging speeches in favour from peers, including women bishops.  However, the proposal did provide an opportunity for the English Parliament to question the Church’s commitment to ending discrimination against women clergy.  There are currently 25 bishops, called the Lords Spiritual, sitting in the House of Lords, of whom 6 are women.

The recent resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has led to the inevitable speculation about a successor, but this time there is a woman who is beginning to be spoken of as a serious possibility, The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehquani, Bishop of Chelmsford since 2021, the second largest diocese by population in England.[20]

We should not forget that we have come a long way in the 38 years since women were first made deacons.  Statistics compiled by Melbourne layman Colin Reilly show that analysing the active clergy listed in The Anglican Church of Australia Directory 2020-23 reveals

…there are now four dioceses with equal or greater numbers of female to male clergy: Bunbury in WA, Gippsland in Victoria, Grafton in NSW, and Willochra in SA.  Overall though the proportion is 25% active female clergy in Australia.[21]

There is much to be done.  On average woman are ordained at an older age than men and tend to take parishes – more accurately surely only be offered parishes – in more difficult areas or on a part-time basis.  Women tend to be in parishes further from the diocesan Cathedral, the spiritual and administrative centre.

In the Canberra and Goulburn Report, women said they seemed not to fit the dated stereotype of the ‘ideal minister’, a mid-career man with a family.  The ‘ideal’ needs reimagining.  Most women were considered too young or too old, with a growing trend for women to be or remain single, something one called  ‘reverse celibacy’, with marriage seeming to be a barrier or a risk.[22]  One woman said she had been asked in an appointment process how she would manage ministry, her children and the housework; another, a business woman and manager of number of people before ordination, was knocked back for an appointment on the basis of a ‘lack of experience’.[23]

How serious is the situation and are there signs of hope?  I have long said the people who should despair are those who do not want change, because change will always come; tides cannot be held back.  Now is a time to call out pushback on women when encountered, and to speak and act confidently about the changes already achieved.

Of course, our Church will continue to have women leaders who will shape the life of the institution as they also adapt the changing roles of the Church in the wider society.  The vocation of the parish priest is a marvellous one, but as a job it is crazy!  My image for it has long been ‘juggling confetti.’  As well as the Ordinal’s ‘job description’ in the Exhortation, these days the vicar or rector is responsible for compliance matters, leadership team building with, if they are lucky, a curate or assistant priest/s, usually honorary, and volunteers.  There is the care of existing parishioners and acquiring new ones, mentoring, and supporting colleagues in the deanery, in the archdeaconry and taking one’s place in Diocesan synod and other Councils of the Church (yes that is in the Ordinal), belonging to the local community, and opening the parish centre at any hour, any day when someone forgets their keys – again.

The creation of the new Faith Workers Alliance is a necessary and useful development in supporting individual clergy in times of crisis and challenge and working with and challenging churches to be better and do better in their various human resource processes.[24]

I have every confidence in the quality of the women clergy I see being ordained, leading parishes and in other ministries.  I do believe the ordination of women is here to stay and that our ‘house divided’ will learn to live more tolerantly with different practices, with a caveat that we need to be vigilant about those who would burn the house down rather than share leadership with their sisters in Christ.

I do believe that women will increasingly take up senior leadership roles engendering not only hope, but real change as the Anglican Church engages yet again with the real world in which we are to bring and be good news.

See more photos from the conference at our gallery.

Bibliography

James, P D. The Children of Men. London: Faber & Faber, 1992, paperback ed. 2018.

Jamieson, Penny. Living at the Edge. Sacrament and Solidarity in Leadership. London: Mowbray, 1997.

Lee, Dorothy. The Ministry of Women in the New Testament. Reclaiming the Biblical Vision for Church Leadership. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021.

Li Tim Oi, Florence, with Ted Harrison.  Much Beloved Daughter. London: DLT, 1985.

Porter, Muriel.  Women in the Church. The Great Ordination Debate in Australia. Ringwood: Penguin Books, 1989.

Porter, Muriel. Women in Purple. Women Bishops in Australia. Mulgrave: John Garratt, 2008.

[1] P D James, The Children of Men.  London: Faber & Faber, 1992, paperback ed. 2018.

[2] Li Tim-Oi 1907-1992, was ordained by Bishop Ronald Owen Hall, bishop of Hong Kong and China 1932-1966.  Her story is now well known, and she is commemorated on 24 January in the Calendars of The Episcopal Church USA and Canada.

[3] In November 1971 Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang were ordained in Hong Kong by Bishop Gilbert Baker with the cautious encouragement of the newly formed lay and ordained body, the Anglican Consultative Council, which urged Anglican Churches to remain in communion with Hong Kong and any others who might proceed to ordain women priests.

[4] On 29 July 1974 at the Episcopal Church of the Advocate, Philadelphia, eleven women deacons were ordained by retired bishops, two years before the General Convention voted in favour.  The women who became known as ‘the Philadelphia Eleven’ were Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig.  The bishops were: Daniel Corrigan, retired bishop suffragan of Colorado; Robert L. DeWitt, recently resigned Bishop of Pennsylvania; and Edward R. Welles II, retired Bishop of West Missouri.

[5] Ministry Future Summary Report for the Church March 2024 https://www.lca.org.au/ministry-future/. Accessed 18 September 2024

[6] https://www.lca.org.au/synod-endorses-the-ordination-of-both-women-and-men/.  Accessed 6 October 2024.

[7] National Catholic Register https://www.ncregister.com/cna/orthodox-church-ordains-female-deacon  9 May 2024.

[8] https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia.  Accessed 19 September 2024.

[9] A report by the Women in Leadership Working Group, Addressing Disparity: listening to the leadership experience of ordained women in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese. July 2024, received by the Diocesan Synod 31 August 2024.  In response, an ongoing Women in Leadership Commission has been established, for an initial term of 5 years.

[10] For an excellent summary of this see:  https://humanrights.ca/story/online-misogyny-manosphere.  Accessed 20 November 2024.

[11]  Begun in 1936, AFES is now the primary Christian group on Australian campuses.  It is conservative in its beliefs concerning the limited role for women in the church attributed to the Christian scriptures though this is not stated explicitly but is a result of a commitment to the inerrancy of the bible.  https://afes.org.au/doctrinal-basis/

[12] Consecrated in August 2024 for Canberra and Goulburn, Vanessa Bennett was made a deacon in Sydney in 2003 and ordained a priest in Canberra and Goulburn in 2010.  During her incumbency as Vicar of Moonee Ponds in Melbourne Diocese she was also Archdeacon of Essendon.

[13] Fudge, Thomas, Darkness: The Conversion of Anglican Armidale 1960-2019.  Vancouver: St John’s University Press, 2024.

[14] This occurred following a report to Sydney Synod in 2018.   Synod passed the following motion: ‘Synod, noting the report Proposal to financially support the Diocese of Bathurst, agrees in principle to provide financial support of $250,000 per year towards the costs of a Bishop and his (sic) registrar for the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst for a period of six years, subject to the Bishop of Bathurst during that time having the written support of the Archbishop of Sydney.’

[15] The Anglican Church of Australia Directory, 2024/25, 30.

[16] Canonical fitness is the technical term for the minimum requirements to be consecrated a bishop.  These are that a person be baptised, in priest’s orders and thirty years old.

[17] Barbara Darling, originally from Sydney but made deacon 1986 and ordained priest 1992 in Melbourne was the second women to be consecrated a bishop in Australia (2008).  She died in 2015.

[18] Genieve Blackwell, like Bennett her colleague and friend, was also made a deacon in Sydney and ordained a priest in Bathurst Diocese.  She was consecrated a bishop for Canberra and Goulburn in 2012, after coming to Melbourne as an assistant bishop following the retirement of the late Bishop Barbara Darling.

[19] The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 Extension Bill, debated 10 September 2024  https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2024-09-10/debates/.  Accessed 24 September 2024.  The 2015 Act altered the operation of the 1878 Act, providing that, for the next 10 years, any time a vacancy arose among the Lords Spiritual whose places are determined by seniority, the vacancy would be filled by the most senior female diocesan bishop available, effectively allowing women to ‘jump the queue’ ahead of men.  The extension continues this provision for a further 5 years.

[20] Born in Iran, Bp Guli’s family left the country in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1980, when she was 13 years old, and to date she has been unable to return.  Between 2017 and 2021, Bishop Guli served as the first Bishop of Loughborough in the Diocese of Leicester.  As well as assisting the Bishop of Leicester across the Diocese, her specific responsibilities included overseeing and supporting the vocations of those called to lay and ordained ministries.  Before she became Bishop of Loughborough, Bishop Guli led curate training in the Diocese of Peterborough.

[21] Colin Reilly 2023, unpublished manuscript, communicated personally.  Reilly, a statistician by training, is a longstanding leading layman in Melbourne, a member of General Synod and has served in multiple key diocesan roles over decades.

[22] P 16

[23] P17

[24] www.faithworkers.org.au.  Established two years ago this is effectively a trade union for people who work in faith communities.  FWA provides resources and training as well as advice and advocacy.