By What Authority: Lay Ministry

As a Reader for 31 years I have conducted baptisms and funerals (depending on which diocese I was in at the time). I currently lead and/or preach at all types of services, tutor courses, and administer Communion with the Reserved Sacrament at mid-week services. I am a member of our Ministry Team (with clergy and two other Readers) and have never experienced any prejudice from colleagues or congregations. On the rare occasion when I am invited to take Matins, Evensong, or preach in another parish, it is only in Evangelical churches. I have never been invited to a Catholic parish.

I do not worship in my home parish because it is a no-go area for women – though they have recently got a woman Permanent Deacon. Although the parish is listed as Forward in Faith, holding Resolutions A, B and C, it is only the vicar who is against women’s ordination. The PCC are all FOR.

I was Head of R.E. and Assistant Year Head in a comprehensive school, and was a Magistrate for 40 years.

Dr Maureen Bravington
Reader, Portsmouth then Chichester Dioceses

Maureen has a B.E. in RE and Theology; a PgD in Business Ed & IT; an MA in Theology & Religion, and a 1st Class Doctorate in Biblical & Religious Studies. Her experience includes: Sunday School Superintendent (4 leaders, 25 teachers, 300 children); Server, Lay Minister of Communion; Young Wives’ Leader, Mothers’ Union Speaker; Tutor for Bishop’s Certificate, Tutor of the College of Preachers; Day Chaplain, Chichester Cathedral; Member of a number of PCCs, and Chair of Mission Group.

By What Authority

My own journey to Priesthood was quite a long one – eight years as a Deaconess, serving two curacies in the Diocese of London in the late 70’s, early 80’s, in a suburban parish in North London – Christ Church, Southgate in the Edmonton Episcopal area, followed by Christ Church Marylebone Team Ministry where my particular responsibility - amongst general parish duties, was as Chaplain to the shops and offices in the Marylebone/Edgware roads. I regularly visited the British Railways Board, the Health and Safety Executive, London Transport, the London Tourist Board and the headquarters of Woolworths, and put on weekly services/discussion groups and lunches for office workers. Part of the parish was inner city – Lissom Grove Estate - and part was West End. A fascinating and enormously rewarding place to minister. I then crossed over the river to the Diocese of Southwark where I was Chaplain to Thames Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich) for seven years. I didn’t want to go on being an endless curate as a woman, and incumbency was not open to me as a Deaconess, so Chaplaincy seemed an obvious way forward.

Whilst at Thames Poly I was ordained Deacon, in Southwark Cathedral in 1987. (My first ‘Ordination’ as a Deaconess had taken part in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1979, alongside 10 male Deacons and 6 Priests – I was the only woman, and not allowed to wear a surplice, just the blue Deaconess cassock and silver Cross).

In 1991 I moved to the Bristol Diocese to take up my new job as Senior Anglican Chaplain to the University of Bristol. All my predecessors had also been Priest in Charge of the University Church of St Paul’s Clifton, but as a Deacon I could not do that, although in effect I was the team leader there, with 2 male colleagues – one the assistant chaplain, the other the Priest in Charge of St Paul’s. Although only a Deacon, one of my first jobs in that post was to short list and interview for the Assistant Anglican Chaplain’s post. During my time there I had the enormous privilege of being part of the first Ordination of women as Priests in England, at Bristol Cathedral on 12th March 1994. There were 32 of us women ordained that day, and because the Bishop always Ordained alphabetically, and my surname begins with ‘B’, (as I had not changed my name when I got married) the media made a big fuss about me being the ‘first’, but really all 32 of us were ‘the first women’.

In 1995 I moved to my first Incumbency, as Priest in Charge, and later Rector, of Colerne and North Wraxall, still in the Bristol Diocese. I was there for nearly 9 years, during which time I also served as an Officiating Chaplain to the Army one day a week – there was a large Army base in my main parish. The Bishop also asked me to chair the Diocesan Board of Education during the inter regnum of the Archdeacon of Malmesbury. I continued in this role for a second year, even though there was a new Archdeacon by then. Since 2004 I have been the University Chaplain and Ecumenical Team Leader at the University of Bath, where I lead a team of 9 Chaplains across the denominations, from Orthodox to U.R.C. In 2009 I was made a Prebendary at Wells Cathedral – a largely honorary but very enjoyable role.

I have also recently completed a year’s course run by June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James Picadilly, Jane Shaw – now Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and Keith Lamdin, Principal of Sarum College. The course was designed to encourage diversity in senior leadership in the Church of England: www.www-bb.co.uk. The course is described as follows:

“The course is an exciting programme for women priests in the Church of England who have the potential to develop into senior leaders of that church. The purpose of the programme is to provide a safe and challenging community of learning. Within that community women will explore their longer term vocation, gain confidence in God’s purposes for them and develop skills necessary for leadership. The programme may also lead to further opportunities of mentoring or leadership training both within and outside the church.”

I have ministered under the authority of God, the Church of England, my Diocesan Bishops, and the Vice Chancellor of the University. My calling has deepened and changed over the years, and has been particularly challenged on the course. For the future – I am beginning to explore where God may be calling me next.

The Reverend Prebendary Angela Berners-Wilson
University Chaplain and Ecumenical Team Leader - University of Bath

By What Authority

As the incumbent of a multi-church rural benefice the most striking statement made to me came from a parishioner: I expect you’ll be wanting to stamp your authority on the place.
I was shocked: I didn’t intend to stamp on anyone but perhaps stamping was expected! Women are still often pioneers: I was the first woman Rector in the parish. I believe that authority was given to me sacramentally at ordination but also practically day by day through my relationships in the parish. Good relationships make it possible to stand firm on unpopular issues and to be challenging when necessary. For me, authority was to be used gently and wisely, never wielded like a weapon.

The ways in which I expressed authority varied considerably according to the situation. I felt the first PCC meeting was very significant – it was public and official. I adhered to the agenda, kept the meeting on track and allowed everyone a chance to speak. We finished in good time. There was palpable relief at the end that she could chair a meeting well. Some might see this as trivial but I think people felt they were in safe hands and that is a deep not a superficial thing. In addition to the United Parish PCC each church had its DCC. I sat lightly on these meetings, visiting occasionally for a specific agenda item. The people were perfectly capable of running their church but they needed the Rector to nudge them into seeing the wider view. There was creative interplay between the ways I exercised authority within the benefice and its constituent churches.

There is a perception that a woman in a leadership role will be either overbearing or feeble. One has to discern carefully the rare occasions to be firm and in my experience this approach generated respect and an understanding that there was decisiveness when needed. Listening to wise lay people was a vital part of my ministry; taking advice, being honest, loyal and clear about personal boundaries – all these affected the style of leadership I exercised.

I made mistakes but always tried to accept the authority I had been given and be sensitive with it. I felt occasionally isolated and there was the odd bad moment. However, I was sustained by the love of friends outside the parish and by belief in my ordination.

It helped that I was an older entrant to the priesthood, with my secular career behind me. I did not feel the need to be competitive, or, excessively beholden to the institution. Stamping my authority might have realised quick changes and been apparently effective but I would not have brought people with me. I believe that where change is desirable people have to discover the need for it themselves. This is necessarily a slow process, room for light to dawn, above all space for the Holy Spirit to work.

To understand the nature of authority under God is a continuing and unfinished endeavour.

Rev’d Gillian Greenslade
Canon Emeritus, Chelmsford



Leadership in Ministry

And he said to them ‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is old and what is new’ (Matthew 13:52).

These words of Jesus formed the text of the sermon at my ordination as a priest in 1994 capturing in some way what was happening at that very service and, for me, capturing the essence of leadership in ministry. Leadership which values what is good in tradition and what is new; discerning the God given possibilities in the lives of young and old people, ancient and modern buildings, traditional and new forms of liturgy. Listening to the voice of Christ in scripture and in the world around us, the voice of Christ who calls, accompanies and challenges.

In practice this has meant that leadership for me has always been about opening doors and windows for people to be more fully aware of God and of their part, as members of the church, in building up that body. It has been about valuing them where they are and enabling them to grow in confidence to share what they know and the relationships they have within the church with those around them. It has been about listening to where the gaps have been in the life of the church so far and looking for ways in which those gaps might be filled. Sometimes this has simply meant putting relevant facts about major decisions on paper for each member of a congregation to have rather than simply relying on a ‘word of mouth’ approach, thus avoiding misinformation and mis-understandings. At other times it has been about ensuring that major players in any decision – whether they are patrons of a parish, key musicians for an important service, or members of the local community – are involved from the very beginning and not, as so often happens, as the processes roll out. On a larger scale it has involved looking at the structures and seeing how people’s time and gifts might be used more imaginatively.

Here, the reorganisation of PCC meetings so that alternate meetings were used for those teams delegated to oversee different aspects of the church’s life, led to regular meetings of such groups without the interminable searching for dates agreeable to everyone; more effective PCC meetings since issues had been discussed in the smaller groups beforehand; more imaginative ideas coming forward, owned and acted upon (with the agreement of the full PCC) and a new air of expectancy and confidence. All taking place in different parts of the church building so that I was available to all but in charge of none so freeing myself as well as them.

Leadership has been about calling in leading folk in the diocese to lead parish weekends, training days, to preach and to teach; to encourage parish officers and others to participate in diocesan events and training days; generally to widen the vision of the local church, enabling it to be fully aware of the larger family to which it belongs and to understand that ‘the diocese’ is other people like themselves, seeking to support, encourage and develop its life as part of God’s family. As Dean of women it has been about developing a network of welcome and support, and of helping women clergy relate to the wider issues of ministry for them and the church. Invitations to national speakers and days looking at women and senior posts have all been a part of this feeding and encouragement of those for whom I have had responsibility. Sometimes, as a member of the Bishop’s Senior Staff, it was about questioning assumptions made.

But perhaps the boldest step and ultimately the most significant step I took in this was in following the example of another woman priest and placing the APCMs (Annual Parochial Church Meetings) back in the heart of worship in a morning service. Within this service, as at all APCM’s, presentations of the past years’ activities were made and elections of officers took place. These were then, however, followed by a short liturgy of commitment on the part of clergy, elected officers and the congregation. The effect was beyond what I might have hoped – on average more than 100 people took part and those on the fringe in particular, but also some more long standing members became more fully aware and appreciative of what the church community was doing and who was involved and the part they too might play in God’s economy.

Rev’d Canon ‘Tricia Impey
Diocese of Blackburn (recently retired from Sheffield Diocese)



By What Authority

My pre-school years had a powerful effect on my life, learning to know God within church and thinking the vicar, high up in the pulpit, might even be God! Its quiet hushed tones resonated within my young mind, not yet realising that God was already calling me. Male and female are equal in His eyes so both are called.

I grew up always knowing I was destined to be a priest and it is God’s authority which brought this about.
My first real leadership role was with a firm of Solicitors in charge of a department dealing with matrimonial and financial problems, preparing cases for court and supporting those finding the whole thing traumatic and upsetting. A sure grounding for the priesthood…how wise God is. I was further led by God to become a “mature” student nurse, where hospital staff frequently sought me with their problems, perhaps why I ultimately spent many years with the Samaritans, becoming one of their leaders.

My acceptance for ordination training was a mix of fear and excitement, the first year of my studies coinciding with my role of Ward Sister, a hard balance of demanding work, leading a team of nursing staff and students plus keeping apace with theological studies. God never puts before us what we cannot manage and my quiet time of prayer before going on duty was even more important during this time. Ultimately, retirement from the Health Service helped a great deal. Not a question of failure, more pacing my workload. This was never more important than when diagnosed with incurable cancer. I was to suffer pain greater than anything I’d known, so my affinity with Christ and St. Paul increased. I was called to lead others to know God and now felt cheated but never critical. Job remarked that no matter how great his pain may be, God is holy and we know only too well of St. Paul’s thorn in his side, a reference to the ill health he also lived with.

I believe churchly leadership roles come only with God’s authority and never more so than during these past few years. I must admit that the strong front I try and portray to others hides the difficulties involved in being so ill whilst trying to continue with ministry. “Where does my ministry now lie” I frequently asked, as my workload changed due to ever increasing weakness. It is still there though, just different. It’s a burden I bear and do so for God’s love. I don’t share this piously, simply know that he gives me the strength I need and always stands by me. I write occasionally in the local magazine which brings support to others in difficulties. I am told the way I cope with terminal illness helps others by example. The Good Shepherd we rely on continues to give me life in all its fullness within the confines of cancer.
It is only when we meet these problems half way, trusting totally, we are able to appreciate this.

Revd. Barbara Chillington
Associate Priest, Peterchurch, Herefordshire



By What Authority

As I sit around the Bishop’s Staff table, with my 11 male colleagues, or at the Appointments’ Meeting (where all major decisions about clergy deployment are discussed) with my seven male colleagues and one woman colleague, I find myself reflecting on what it’s like to be here as a woman priest and the Director of Ministerial Training. I have oversight for all authorised lay and ordained training issues from vocation to retirement, I am a BAP Adviser, Co-Chair of the South Central Regional Training Partnership, a CDM Assessor, have worked with ordinands and LLMs for 19 years but I’m not a bishop, archdeacon or dean so I don’t appear on any critical lists as a leader in the Church. And yet I think I exercise a valuable leadership role within the diocese and the region.

Being the only woman on the senior team has been uncomfortable for lots of reasons – thoughts and feelings are projected on to me from all sides – and I don’t envy the first women bishops who will have so many public and private issues to cope with.

And being a woman does not necessarily make me better or worse a Christian than any of my colleagues. Like them, I have gifts and limitations, insights and blind spots; but I have lived and served in this diocese longer than any of them! I hope that soon we will have more women in leadership positions in Guildford to reflect more fairly the growing number of women clergy serving here.

I really value my colleagues and their support and – mostly – working in such a male dominated world is fine (if unjust and unnecessary). There are few day to day overt moments of discrimination but there is still a hidden bias which is hard to identify and easy to collude with. It’s not – normally – deliberate but subtle and unconscious. So when the men make tough decisions they are being professional and authoritative whereas I am styled by some – with a friendly smile – as a bit bossy and not to be argued with. We don’t defer decisions – we declare them ‘out of touch’. We are extremely concerned about those who will be upset by having women bishops – but not quite so anxious about the women who will be upset by having bishops with limited authority.

But I believe I have been called and so I will continue to minister. My aim has always been to identify where my gifts and calling lie, get on with doing what I think I do well to the best of my ability and hope that the evidence will speak for itself – that women – some women – are called to leadership and can be excellent leaders working with the authority of the Church, and more importantly, of the God who calls them.

Revd Canon Dr Hazel Whitehead
Director of Ministerial Training - Diocese of Guildford



Experience and Learning – a Hospital Chaplain

Working as a hospital chaplain it is, in some ways, easier to be a leader and a woman because the NHS is, in theory, an equal opportunity employer. Having said that, the Team Leader when I was new was “appointed” by the then Director of Nursing without interview, as the best candidate. He was, so there was no argument.  When he left, and I applied, an interview process had to take place. I blew the interview (and probably hadn’t enough experience), but, what do you know?  One of the chaps was appointed without interview! 

We get on with life, and are in different hospitals, so I “lead” the chaplaincy work in my hospital, with the respect and support of staff at all levels. The service is developing and widely appreciated.  It becomes interesting when we have ordinands on placement or placements from other denominations, who just assume that because they are male, they take the lead! I have to say that makes for some interesting conversations, and some serious “reflection” on what’s going on. 

Once I came back from a ward having been charged to phone two schools in order to talk to the head teachers and get them to tell two girls that their daddy was dying, and would they like to come and say goodbye to him (they needed the information and the choice). My (female) colleague and I set to, finding phone numbers, chatting about things as we went, and one of these other pastors (who was now a volunteer) was sitting there in the office. He kept telling us to “chill” and eventually “to calm down ladies”! I told him we were calm, and to do something useful like putting the kettle on! Eventually, in the middle of all we were trying to do, I had to tell him to keep quiet, or I’d ask him to leave.

We talked it through later, him giving his memory of the event, and me adding my experience. He gradually realised his response was inappropriate, and apologised. He was most upset when I said that MY learning was that I should have asked him to leave the office when I first got back. He said “but I wouldn’t have learnt anything, and I want to learn”. Lesson no. 1 “It’s not all about you”!! We have a job to do here.

Like many men and women, I don’t find confrontation easy, but I have learnt that if I feel something very strongly, I need to find a voice for that feeling, if not now, later.

Anonymous



Musings of an Evangelical Ordinand

‘We don’t have space here for someone who might reflect on the process and perhaps challenge the way things are done.’

This was the reason that I was not accepted for the first curacy that my diocese sent me to look at. It probably epitomises the experience I have had of being this particular woman in this particular place. The overriding message that I have received about what it means to be a priest and to lead well and successfully, is that ‘management’ is the name of the game. In other words, a reflective nature and creativity are nice adjuncts to the real stuff of being a priest, which is leadership...and leadership is management.

However, my leadership style does not see Priest as Manager as the primary metaphor. I prefer to understand my priestliness as integrated with the person that God has made me to be. And in order to remain ‘me’ within a structure that is dominated by language of strategy and process, I have needed to be very intentional about how my own leadership is worked out so that it is authentic.

As an ordinand, I have not yet discovered how this all works out in the parish, however my teeth are cut in a community where leadership style is under scrutiny and our confidence in our own calling and way of being priest is likely to take some hits. This is especially, although not only, the case when your natural style is not that of the dominant majority. I suspect that this is quite often something that women experience, from calling, through training and into parish ministry.

I have discovered that my primary way of being ‘priest’ is about being ‘present’ in a community. This is not the same thing as simply being available to all at every time – something that is impossible and likely to leave us frazzled and eccentric.

Being present in a community means on one hand to be there, being attentive and intuitive to the needs of that community: attempting to allow God’s grace to flow through the gifts that God has given you and the specific ‘shape’ your priestliness takes, because you are you. On the other hand your ‘shape’ and presence may challenge the existing shape and needs of that community or place, so that your very existence is a mark of God’s otherness. It may be that we find ourselves impacting on a community that might need to be disturbed. By being present we may find ourselves a comfort or a disturbance.

Too often we speak of Presence as an abstract notion, but it is not simply a ‘nice idea’, nor one just ‘for the girls’ (or the Catholics). It is not the fluffy option for those who cannot cut it as the equivalent of CEOs. It is extremely hard work. It is a giving of self, which can only be given when the source is God. It is not ethereal, it is incarnation at its most solid.

Jody Stowell is about to be ordained in the Church of England and serve her curacy at All Saints’ Harrow Weald. She is also on the leadership team of Fulcrum.



Reflections

November 1978 I was recovering from a debilitating bout of pleurisy. I had been absent from my class of 6 year olds for some time, unable to do anything for my family or my husband’s parish. Listening to the radio I heard the announcement that General Synod had voted against the ordination of women. I wept. Not usually given to tears I made up my mind to act. On recovering I joined the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW). I had no idea then what an impact MOW and subsequently Women and the Church (WATCH) would have on my life. I have always believed each of us had gifts that can be used to enrich Church and Society. It was essential we fulfil the Gospel message that Christ came to bring life so we may have it abundantly. Looking back I realise my whole teaching career and involvement in the Church were underpinned by these beliefs, along with the example that Jesus gave of his inclusive ministry towards those Society did not value.

For me, the 1980’s were a creative decade. I was appointed head teacher of a large Infant school in a richly multi cultural borough dedicated to overcoming discrimination. We were a close-knit staff team who sought ways of supporting the children and their families in counteracting the racism many faced. We developed a curriculum that engaged them in being strongly aware of and confident about their abilities. We wanted them to be open to the possibilities and choices life could hold. We worked together to make the curriculum lively, involving and relevant. We received an award from the Fawcett Society in recognition of the children’s achievements.

As Society was realising how much was being lost by excluding women from key profession and taking action about it, MOW and associated groups were pressuring the Church for women to be ordained. It was quite clear that women had vocations the Church needed. Why should they be rejected on the unscriptural grounds of being the “wrong half” of Creation? It is one thing for individuals to hide their own “light under a bushel” but it is quite another for the Church to collude with this and act as a stumbling block to so many. I found myself speaking at meetings with people like Monica Furlong, writing letters, articles for magazines and demonstrating at Ordinations.

While women were eventually ordained, the struggle for them to enter the Episcopate still carries on, with the same arguments, facing the same grudging acceptance. But, as the history of women’s progress demonstrates, along with that of slavery, it takes a long time for the revelation of what it means to be fully human to become part of the Church’s consciousness. Whatever the result of the vote in November we will carry on with determined optimism to ensure the gifts of women are accepted and the message of the Gospels, that we are all one in Christ, can be truly recognised and fulfilled.

Sally Barnes
WATCH Media Officer
Secretary to WATCH (London)

As hospice chaplain I cross departmental boundaries. My first pastoral concern is patients, despite the Chief Executive stating ‘we are running a business’, a hospice is for people! Of equal importance are the carers: medical staff and relatives. Other significant staff are admin, fundraisers, cooks, and gardeners, each in separate departments so I encourage team building, simple things like making cakes one day a week and inviting all staff for their morning break. Another group are volunteers, who no-one seemed to care for, men and women of varying ages and backgrounds who offer skills: hairdressing, massage, driving, feeding patients, tending the garden. I worked to create special occasions for them. I believe an important part of my role is to value each person as a ‘child of God’.

The chapel is opposite the kitchen, food for body and soul! I used a water feature, plants, shells, to create a peaceful atmosphere with calming music, designed prayer cards. The corridor display board included pictures, jokes, and quotations as food for thought. Changing it frequently attracted attention. The door is open for anyone to enter, light a candle, take a card, write a message and simply to be. Sometimes passing I hear crying, go in and simply sit by someone, believing the presence of Christ is with us.

Sunday begins with Eucharist for anyone who asks; regularly in the afternoon a service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance is held to remember those who die in the hospice. ‘Starting Points’ on Monday is for staff to commit the week to God. Each day after lunch, Day Centre Patients are invited to Reflections – story telling, a topical incident, a time of no-holes barred – exploring suffering, courage, dying, the after life – no easy answers, but a sense of deep sharing. If a member of the group died it is acknowledged by lighting a candle and sharing memories, each knowing that when their death came, they too would be remembered. In Advent ‘Light up a Life’ are outdoor carol services encouraging giving in memory of a loved one.

I visit the In-patients daily and speak to everyone. One lady asked who I was, and said she didn’t believe in God so didn’t need me. I continued to acknowledge her. One day she wanted to talk and out spilled a story of rejection by the church. A man only knew of a vengeful God, he believed himself dammed. He learnt that I didn’t believe in that God. Gradually staff came to trust me and I learnt of bullying from seniors, racism, unfair dismissal. I challenged management, while honouring confidentiality. Funerals were asked for by those who had no faith, knowing that I am a priest. There are glad occasions too – weddings, with a special licence.

I taught courses on Breaking Bad News to medics; Loss, Grief and Bereavement to teachers; Hospice work to teenagers and led Assemblies for Primary Schools on Loss.

Chaplaincy is a calling; a privilege to serve, to be priest and prophet. Involving encouraging professionals and amateurs, healthy and sick, men and women, to live life to the full, and by God’s grace their making meaning in life will be deepened.

Revd Dr Marian Carter



Authority over Sheep and People

On Thursday and Friday 2nd and 3rd of June we actually had wonderful warm sun in the North East and could at last wear sandals and no tights and have warm feet! The next day the temperature plummeted and when Ralph and I set off on Sunday 5th June the temperature was only 7.5 and it never got above 8.5 all day. I was going to Nenthead twenty miles away to preside over a Eucharist at 9.30 and then on to Alston for another at 11am.

Nenthead is a village in the high north Pennines which grew up when the lead mine was flourishing. I had been warned that I might find the people dour. We parked and puffed up a steep hill to the small simple church, which was beautifully kept. The Church warden welcomed me and admitted it was tough. "Yet," he added, "we must keep going as ‘they’ want us to be here and they come at harvest, Christmas and Remembrance Day and for funerals and weddings" – no atheist funerals or weddings on Greek islands for the sheep farmers of the high Pennines.

We actually managed eight – the usual four, Ralph and I and two visitors – a man and a woman. I did not find them dour but friendly and appreciative – and ready to sing! They insisted I had a cup of coffee before driving on. We all went into the beautifully kept vestry where they hold the service in winter. At Alston, one of the highest small towns in England, we managed 25. Again the church was freezing but the people were warm and welcoming.

There was no objection anywhere among these hardened Pennine people to a woman arriving. They are all very proud too of Judy, their vicar, who plays a part in all the community activities and – unlike me – has a wonderful singing voice.

Hungry and cold, Ralph and I called for lunch at a small country pub in Knarsdale, just next door to one of Judy’s other churches where I have been before to conduct their fortnightly service. Judy has six churches in one parish – three in Northumberland and three in Cumbria including Alston her largest one.

Ralph told the landlord that I had done two services that morning and needed a good glass of white wine and it appeared immediately! We ate roast lamb, reared in the field just opposite the pub, and bantered with the farmers who came in for a drink and to discuss the selling price of lambs. People in these Dales spend months of the year deep in snow but it never prevents them getting about and it makes them tough and friendly.

Judy herself used to be a shepherd at one time but now is ‘Spiritual shepherd’ of other shepherds and farmers, retired miners, workers in the tourist industry – and of course hundreds and hundreds of woolly sheep and miles and miles of countryside. There is no question of her authority or the respect in which she is held – and when I turned up I was equally respected under her shadow.

Revd Jean Mayland
Retired Priest and founder member of MOW (Movement for the Ordination of Women), WATCH (Women and the Church) and GRAS (Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod)



By What Authority

With Archdeacon Joyce Cendi and Revd Edith Njiri (deceased) I was one of the first three women officially ordained in Kenya by the Rt Revd Dr David Mukuba Gitari, in the Diocese of Kirinyaga, in 1992 while working as a mission partner with the Church Mission Society.

When I came to celebrate at my first Communion Service in the local church, which I had promised to do in the Kikuyu language, as is the custom when it was time to receive communion, I welcomed the congregation to the Lord’s Table.

No-one in the church moved. I stood for what seemed a very long time before repeating the invitation. Still no-one moved. Then, as I was about to repeat the invitation for a third time the women all stood up together, began ululating with joy and simultaneously waving everybody in the church to go forward.

After the service I asked the women why they had not come forward at the first invitation. Their reply touched me deeply:

“We women,” they said, “prepare, cook and serve food to our husbands and children every day but never have we been able to serve at the Lord’s Table. Today, for the first time, we watched a woman do this and it was very special for us women.”

I have celebrated communion many times since, but it was that service and what the women said, that deepened the realisation of the ministry to which I had been called.

When I reached retirement age, because of being ordained I am still able to serve the Lord in England as a self-supporting minister taking services, working with young people and I especially love celebrating communion with the very elderly or sick in their homes or residential homes.

Revd Canon Pamela Wilding, MBE
Licensed self-supporting minister in the Diocese of Blackburn



By What Authority

I am one of the many women who travelled the long journey from Deaconess, to Deacon – eventually being Priested in 1994, among the first women to be Ordained. I have always felt that the long wait, which I saw as a sort of apprenticeship, gave me a very good grounding into eventually receiving the authority bestowed upon me at Ordination.

There are two phrases within Ordination and Induction services that enabled me to take the authority both God and His Church gave me. At Ordination when the Bible is handed to priests, the words used are ‘receive this book which God has given you this day as a sign of the authority’… At an Induction, The Bishop says, ‘accept the cure of souls which is both mine and yours.’

For me personally, I must have taken these phrases very seriously, because in my ministry I have never had any difficulty in ‘taking’ this authority and I have always done so in gratefulness and found it to be very humbling. I am never apologetic about exercising the authority given to me, but hope I am not belligerent or aggressive in this – the apprenticeship of waiting for priesthood was very long!!!

There are those of course unable to accept the authority of a woman. In my experience this is more prevalent within church circles than out of them. These days the funeral directors often ask for ‘a senior woman’!

I am still quite active in retired ministry and notice within myself that I retain ‘the authority given to me to speak God’s word to his people’ and to exercise leadership in the conduct of Quiet Days, general pastoral duties or the mentoring tasks that the Diocese asks me to undertake. I am always aware that I undertake these under the authority of the Bishop, who gives me permission to officiate.

Canon Sylvia Chapman
Retired priest in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich



How Do Women Lead?

I write as a very reluctant leader. When approached about being Rural Dean in the Diocese of Guildford, my immediate response was to refuse. The Archdeacon noted my reasons for not wanting to take up the role: not being good with administration; loving other parts of my ministry to the exclusion of things like this; and having a very short period left on my license. He returned a week later to say my objections had been considered but that people would still like me to have a go – he added that several incumbents in the Deanery thought so too. So I did.

Leadership, I suppose, is a matter of commitment and vocation. I would absolutely subscribe to the former but still feel I do not have a vocation to lead. I was not one of those longing to take up a priestly role either. When approached by my vicar to consider ordination, I experienced a great feeling of joy and excitement but this sprang from a desire to be transformational in the way I would carry out my ministry. I wanted to serve rather than lead in the traditional sense.

And to an extent I think I do this. I take my turn on the cleaning rota in church. I’m a helper at our toddler group, other commitments permitting. I’ve opened the vicarage garden to the rest of the parish, who grow vegetables and fruit, sell the produce and give the proceeds to the church. I would like to go further and, like the legendary Michael Hollings, never shut the vicarage door. But I have a husband with a different view! I would like to work seven days a week but I have a daughter with three children and I want to give her the support I received from my own mother. So I try to make one day a week available for them (It doesn’t always work!).

It takes time for societies to accommodate changes in gender roles. It was and still is said that some men derive their gifts for leadership from their own fathers and grandfathers who have held positions of responsibility, supported by a network of male friends and colleagues. Well, my maternal grandmother held a position of responsibility. A strong and committed Methodist and Maths teacher who called one of her daughters Hypatia after the first known woman mathematician, my grandmother left Burma to settle in Britain in the 1930s, only to learn that her husband, who’d returned to Burma apparently to settle and conclude matters there, had left her for someone else. So she found work teaching Maths at a local boys’ school, brought up her four children on her own, continued to reach out to neighbours, struggling a little with English culture as an Anglo-Asian woman, and made the best of things. She joined a local golf club and soon gained a reputation as an excellent golfer. She died of cancer in her early fifties. Unfortunately I wasn’t told much about her when I was growing up because mothers and grandmothers didn’t figure much in the culture of the 1950s.

Things are very different now. I was active in the women’s struggles for equal opportunities and equal pay in the 1970s and celebrate the possibilities women have open to them today. But it isn’t easy. My daughter and her friends continue to struggle with child care as they balance work and bringing up a family. We agonise over difficult decisions - more, I think, than men, since we still have less collective experience of decision making.

As we work towards women bishops, part of me wants to question the whole idea of a hierarchy but if we’re to have one, I want women to be part of it, for the sake of mothers, grandmothers, daughters and granddaughters created equal in the sight of God.

Revd Carole Bourne
Rural Dean, Emly Deanery, Diocese of Guildford




Back to main Campaign page