| TWENTY Bishops, including four of the five metropolitan archbishops, took part in the consecration of the Ven. Kay Goldsworthy as the first woman bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia on Thursday of last week in Perth (News, 18 April). She is now an Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Perth.
The Primate of Australia, Dr Phillip Aspinall, was the preacher. The other Metropolitans present were the host and presiding bishop, the Archbishop of Perth, the Most Revd Roger Herft; the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier; and the Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Revd Jeffrey Driver.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, was the most notable absentee, together with the five assistant bishops in his diocese. The bishops of North West Australia, Armidale (NSW), The Murray (South Australia), and Ballarat (Victoria) — the other dioceses that do not recognise women priests or bishops — were also absent.
St George’s Cathedral was packed to overflowing for the service, and there was a notable absence of any form of protest.
In his sermon, Archbishop Aspinall praised Bishop Goldsworthy as a “person of wisdom, poise, and courage . . . well suited to the episcopal office”. Episcopal ministry was by its nature collegial, and, as she already knew, “collegiality doesn’t mean afternoon tea with the like-minded.” It could be hard work, in the current “partial, fragile, and vulnerable” state of communion.
Canon Barbara Darling is due to become the second woman bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia when she is consecrated in Melbourne tomorrow. |
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