On Sunday +Kay Goldsworthy was installed as the Archbishop of Perth. I notice some comment, description about her being the first female Archbishop in Australia, but is she not also the first female archbishop in the world? (NB ++Katharine Jefferts Schori was the first Anglican primate but her TEC title was "Presiding Bishop.")
Today, on Thinking Anglicans, I read that there is a new female bishop in South Sudan. Is Elizabeth Awut Ngor the first female bishop in GAFCON Africa? It would seem so. There have already been two female bishop in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (which is not aligned with GAFCON). (Details re all Anglican female episcopal developments here.)
An intriguing element to this story is that Thinking Anglicans is posting about it now, through citation of an Anglican Ink article but the consecration happened at the end of 2016. The TA article also carries a citation of GAFCON's reaction to this news, which is a tremor in the unity of GAFCON.
I can imagine the former archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, biting his tongue as he was writing GAFCON'S explanation of this little drama - cracking the facade of the boasted GAFCON/FOCA solidarity. So much for unity based on schismatic severance!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi Ron,
There is only one UNITY for our Faith and Belief; It is in CHRIST.
Here is a comment from GAFCON/ACNA supporter, Phil Ashby, on V.o.L., about the situation in GAFCON following the revelation of a departure from GAFCON's 'moratorium' on the episcopal Ordination of women, by the Province of South Sudan:
ReplyDelete"But what other ballast does the GAFCON movement and its Primates need to add to the Jerusalem Declaration? What norms of behavior should it expect from its members to keep the movement and the global Anglican reformation from unraveling? The Gafcon Primates have chosen not to allow this "anomaly" of the consecration in South Sudan to change the course they have followed since 2014, to publish the Report of the Task Force, to continue to study the matter of women in the episcopate and to invite the new Primate of South Sudan to join them in that study.
Is that enough ballast to keep the ball from unraveling any further?"
Canon Phil Ashey is the CEO of the American Anglican Council
This is an instance of the AAC - American supporters of ACNA/GAFCON - who are beginning to doubt the trajectory of GAFCON's future as the 'orthodox' representatives of world-wide Anglicanism. ACNA in North America seems also divided on issues of women bishops. Can GAFCON/ACNA overcome this tendency to further schism amongst it own membership is a question that remains
When researching the Kay Goldsworthy story for eternity.news we found one other female archbishop - a Lutheran. Which meant we had to fall back on "first anglican" rather than first in the world. So here in the west Island we don't have a world record in the field of female episcopacy. NZ has one- Penny Jamieson first diocesan female bishop - but we missed out
ReplyDeleteThanks John
ReplyDeleteFirst Anglican and Australian and Down Under and Southern Hemisphere Archbishop is still an impressive set of wins :)