Ordination poses challenge to unity

The historic ordination of the first woman bishop in the Church of England has already made an impact on ecumenical relations, the Catholic archbishop responsible for dialogue and unity said this week.

On Monday, the Revd Libby Lane was ordained and consecrated as Bishop of Stockport following the passing of legislation allowing women bishops by the Church of England’s General Synod in July last year.

But Archbishop Bernard Longley, who is co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic) and leads the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales’ dialogue and unity department, said:  “Sadly … Bishop Lane’s consecration at York Minster serves to highlight one of the major ­challenges that Anglicans and Catholics in England face on the path towards full visible unity.” He added: “The ordination of women to the episcopate presents a further obstacle to achieving that unity among us for which Our Lord prayed.”

Bishop Lane’s consecration was attended by representatives of the Methodists, the United Reformed Church, the Moravian Church and other denominations, but no one from the Catholic Church was present in an official capacity at Monday’s service in York Minster.

The Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, was invited to attend but a spokesman said he had another engagement. The Provincial of the Carmelites, Fr Tony Lester, had planned to be present but was thwarted by a bout of toothache. No one else was able to go in his place.

Canon John O’Toole, ecumenical officer at the Bishops’ Conference, said he could see that there might be concerns among some Catholic prelates that their attendance at the ordination of a woman bishop might be construed as support for the process – but, he stressed, this would absolutely not be the case. “People might have thought, by being present what message would it give out?” he said. 

But he added that Catholic ­bishops and priests attended Anglican and other Christian denomination services of ­ordination. 

He said the bishops worked closely with their Anglican counter­parts in most areas of the country, and said he hoped this would continue in dioceses where a Catholic bishop found himself with a female opposite number in the future. 

“There may be a bit of initial hesitation, because many people don’t like change, but I think it will very quickly be seen as normal.” He pointed out, however, that there was already both Catholic and Anglican female representation on Arcic. “It does change the culture and it might be that the culture will be different because it’s not all men,” he said.

Bishop Lane’s installation as Bishop of Stockport will be at Chester Cathedral on 8 March. Bishop Davies is likely again to  receive an invitation to attend this.