THE number of female clergy in the diocese of Canberra & Goulburn has declined sharply since women were first ordained there 30 years ago, a report presented to a recent meeting of the diocesan synod says.

The diocese, an early and committed advocate for the ordination of women, and one of the first dioceses in the Anglican Church of Australia to ordain women priests, currently has only four female rectors, compared with about 15 a decade ago. There are no female archdeacons, although there is a regional bishop who is a woman.

The report, Addressing Disparity: Listening to the leadership experience of ordained women in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese, by the synod’s Women in Leadership Working Group, is based on interviews with 24 women who are or have been in full-time leadership positions in the diocese.

The working group “uncovered a painful but powerful picture of the experience of women in ordained leadership in this Diocese”, the report says. “At every level from training and formation, selection for ordination, and appointment to positions, we found a growing tendency to prefer and even to import men from beyond this Diocese, rather than to support and encourage the leadership of our own women.”

The report says that women in the diocese feel unsupported and have “reported feelings of betrayal and exclusion” that were “more pronounced here than in other places”.

The chair of the working group, the Revd Lynda McMinn, said that “patriarchal norms” were influencing how women were treated. Diocesan systems and procedures “were modelled on a young man with a family and domestic support”.

Ms McMinn said that the level of hurt and anger among those whom the working group interviewed was deeper than expected. Many women had become disengaged from the diocese, she said.

The diocesan Bishop, Dr Mark Short, has responded by promising to establish a Women in Leadership Commission, as called for by the report.