Anglican Church celebrates 20 years of women priests

THE CHURCH of England is to celebrate today the twentieth anniversary of the ordin­ation of women as latest figures reveal that almost a third of all clergy are female.

A majority of self-supporting clergy in the Church now are women – 1,480 compared to 1,461 men – while the number of full-time female clergy has risen by 41 per cent over the past decade. Self-supporting clergy are those not paid a salary by the Church of England to be priests and include those who have a job alongside their ministry.

Women now make up almost a quarter of all full-time clergy in the Church of England while the number of male stipendiary clergy as a percentage of all diocesan clergy has dropped from 70 per cent in 2002 to just over half in 2012, according to the Church of England report “Statistics for Mission” for that year.

Hundreds of women priests were expected to join the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at a service to celebrate the anniversary in St Paul’s Cathedral in London today.

Following a procession through London from Westminster Abbey on Saturday, a number of women ordained in 1994 were due to give their testimony, as was the former Bishop of Bristol, Barry Rogerson, who was the first bishop to ordain women.

The celebration came after news that a majority of diocesan synods have voted in favour of legislation to ordain women ­bishops, meaning that it can now be returned to General Synod in July 2014 for final approval.

Hilary Cotton, chairwoman of Watch, an organisation which campaigns for women bishops, said: “With this extraordinarily high level of support, I cannot see any rationale that General Synod members might use to explain a second defeat in July.”