The Archbishop of Wales hopes to ordain a woman before long, and the editor of The Church of Ireland Gazette says it it not far off in Ireland and queries Masonic role in appointments
Women bishops: Archbishop of Wales hopes to ordain ‘before very long’
BBC Wales – Dr Barry Morgan said a bill on the matter would be brought in next September.
However, even if backed, it would not be brought into force until pastoral provision had been put in place for those who are opposed, he added.
Earlier, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, a former Bishop of Oxford, called on the Church in Wales to take the lead.
Speaking to BBC Wales, Dr Morgan said: “My hope is that we will be able to ordain women as bishops in the Church in Wales, at least in principle, before very long.
“It’ll be September next year that we’ll bring the bill hopefully enabling women to be ordained as bishops. ”Even if we accept them in principle it can’t come into force until there is some pastoral provision for those who are opposed.”
Some members of the Church in Wales have voiced their opposition to women bishops.
Canon Peter Russell Jones, the Vicar of Conwy, said: “Within a family the role of the father is not interchangeable with that of the mother, so here the role of bishop should properly be discharged by a male.
“It’s not right to view it as a mode of employment.
“The symbolism is far deeper than that.” More at :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20422929
First women bishops in Church of Ireland ‘cannot be far off’
Newsletter – The appointment of the first women bishops in the Church of Ireland “cannot be far off”, it has been claimed.
On Tuesday, the issue of women bishops hit the headlines when the Church of England’s General Synod failed to give final approval to landmark legislation which would have paved the way for women to take the top posts.
A spokeswoman for the Church of Ireland said on Wednesday that the English decision does not affect them. She said the Church of Ireland gave approval for women bishops in 1990 when its own General Synod passed legislation to ordain women priests and bishops.
However, no women have ever taken the top position in the Irish church – the reasons for which caused some speculation on Wednesday.
The editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, Canon Ian Ellis, pictured, said: “I sense that, in the Church of Ireland, there is a feeling that the time for a woman bishop to be appointed is very close.
“We have two appointments of bishops coming up shortly and it is just not clear whether or not a woman will be appointed – let alone two women.
“The Church of Ireland does not seem to have the same depth of division over the matter as there is in the Church of England.”
Canon Ellis also said that there were “other factors, outside the Church, that had influenced such matters in the past”.
He said the “old school” network was no longer a factor, that the Orange Order “had declined in influence”, but he went on to “query the Masonic role”.