There's more good news this year about women being appointed to patronage churches.
Some of it's about numbers. May sound mind-numbingly boring, but numbers tell me that there is a slow trend in the right direction.
The percentage of women being appointed to CPAS churches in the last 12 months has crept up from 25% a year ago to 26% (10 women out of a total of 38 appointments).
And this brings the total of women patronage incumbents to 54 - out of the 454 churches where there is currently someone in post - that's nearly 12%. The 'patronage' system means that certain people or organisations has a right to be involved in the appointment of clergy, and there are 512 parishes where CPAS has this involvement. At any one time, some have a vacancy, hence the total of 454 clergy in post.
But of course this is a story about people. And I am really excited about one person, who was appointed last year to St Thomas, Blackburn - not a diocese known for it's support of women - in fact it is bottom of the 'league table' only to Chichester in terms of its percentage of full time stipendiary women clergy (as at the end of 2006).
Click here to read about Rosalyn Murphy. And you might want to pray for her as she continues to settle in to this demanding role - leading one of the largest churches in the diocese, with a over 550 worshippers.
I'm giving thanks for slow progress, but I'm not at all complacent. There are multitudes of obstacles facing women clergy in the Church of England (and no doubt in other denominations), not all of them obvious. And what we do, the things we say, the people we talk to, can all make a difference to changing the climate of acceptance, and ensuring that appointments are made on the basis of merit and not biased for reasons of gender.
Some of it's about numbers. May sound mind-numbingly boring, but numbers tell me that there is a slow trend in the right direction.
The percentage of women being appointed to CPAS churches in the last 12 months has crept up from 25% a year ago to 26% (10 women out of a total of 38 appointments).
And this brings the total of women patronage incumbents to 54 - out of the 454 churches where there is currently someone in post - that's nearly 12%. The 'patronage' system means that certain people or organisations has a right to be involved in the appointment of clergy, and there are 512 parishes where CPAS has this involvement. At any one time, some have a vacancy, hence the total of 454 clergy in post.
But of course this is a story about people. And I am really excited about one person, who was appointed last year to St Thomas, Blackburn - not a diocese known for it's support of women - in fact it is bottom of the 'league table' only to Chichester in terms of its percentage of full time stipendiary women clergy (as at the end of 2006).
Click here to read about Rosalyn Murphy. And you might want to pray for her as she continues to settle in to this demanding role - leading one of the largest churches in the diocese, with a over 550 worshippers.
I'm giving thanks for slow progress, but I'm not at all complacent. There are multitudes of obstacles facing women clergy in the Church of England (and no doubt in other denominations), not all of them obvious. And what we do, the things we say, the people we talk to, can all make a difference to changing the climate of acceptance, and ensuring that appointments are made on the basis of merit and not biased for reasons of gender.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for this encouraging information.
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