ANTICIPATIONS of the programme of the coming Church Congress are
to be found, so far as the question of woman's position in the
Church is concerned, in the discussions which took place this week
at the Carlisle Diocesan Conference. The Bishop of
Barrow-in-Furness advocated, in a speech of studied moderation, the
admission of woman to a share in the administration of the Church,
and eventually, after an interesting discussion, in which the Dean
supplied the humorous element, the Conference came to the
conclusion that women might be admitted to exercise the right to
vote in ecclesiastical elections in the same way as men, and that
they might be admitted members of the various sorts of conferences.
There is nothing very revolutionary in these proposals, seeing the
active part which women have ever taken in Church matters, to their
own great honour and the benefit of the Church whose servants they
are proud to be. It would be a mistake, nevertheless, to draw the
conclusion that the admission of women to the exercise of the vote
in these respects implied what Dr Barker seemed to imply, that they
belonged to the executive. The word council was erroneously adopted
in the course of the discussion, if by council we are to understand
a governing body. But the episcopate is the true governing body of
the Church, and none else. We may still, therefore, and in spite of
the fearful anticipation of Carlisle's dean, look to a future
without a feminine successor in the chair of St Augustine.