It is a secret fantasy of mine, usually after a Sunday watching too many Miss Marples (Geraldine McEwan episodes, please. At a push maybe Joan Hickson) and Midsomer Murders, to become a country village vicar. With a Baptist/Athiest upbringing and Catholic school education I'd have no idea what was going on and therefore my congregation would be most confused by my slapdash ways. In my fantasy, however, it is always sunny at my old countryside vicarage and I can garden as I solve mysteries and make it no concern of mine that the village has an awful high murder rate. I spend little to no time counselling my flock or writing services. I think it would be a lovely quiet life. In reality it would no doubt be more Father Ted than Vicar of Dibley. More c*nty parish thancountry. The reality for woman vicars (woman vicars who don't see vicaring [technical term] as a righteous opt out scheme) is apparently a life of abusive comments, being spat at and receiving pornographic letters.
According to the organisation Yes 2 Women Bishops the legislation process for women bishops is well under way. As recently as last Friday they posted the results of a running tally of diocesan votes: "The process for legislating to admit women to the episcopate now requires that the the latest rules are sent to the 44 dioceses of the Church of England for each of them to vote on. Last time round 42 of these passed the legislation, with just London and Chichester narrowly voting against."
Makes sense, women make up 65% of churchgoers. This indicates a growing acceptance of women holding positions of authority in the church, no? Well according to Julia Ogilvy this is not so. It is far from so, if you will. In her new book Women in Waiting: Prejudice at the Heart of the Church Ogilvy records the experiences of 12 (hah) women who have encountered prejudice from the Church community.
Some of it could be explained away as paranoia, or a woman being oversensitive. The Reverend Professor Sarah Coakley, who is now at Cambridge and a Professor of Divinity tells of a difficult start at Oriel College: "I wasn’t harassed sexually but I was treated in some extremely weird ways which were actually very undermining to my position, and I had to fight to be allowed to do the job that I’d been appointed to do." While the Dean of York, Vivienne Faull tells of direct action to intimidate her, making the Reverend Professor's experience far more plausible and also quite mild: "I have had a lot of abusive personal stuff, abusive and pornographic letters in the post."
Makes sense, women make up 65% of churchgoers. This indicates a growing acceptance of women holding positions of authority in the church, no? Well according to Julia Ogilvy this is not so. It is far from so, if you will. In her new book Women in Waiting: Prejudice at the Heart of the Church Ogilvy records the experiences of 12 (hah) women who have encountered prejudice from the Church community.
Some of it could be explained away as paranoia, or a woman being oversensitive. The Reverend Professor Sarah Coakley, who is now at Cambridge and a Professor of Divinity tells of a difficult start at Oriel College: "I wasn’t harassed sexually but I was treated in some extremely weird ways which were actually very undermining to my position, and I had to fight to be allowed to do the job that I’d been appointed to do." While the Dean of York, Vivienne Faull tells of direct action to intimidate her, making the Reverend Professor's experience far more plausible and also quite mild: "I have had a lot of abusive personal stuff, abusive and pornographic letters in the post."
| Because our society is increasingly secular we tend to ignore the plight of women in the Church. It's too archaic to be relevant to us surely. However the influence the Church has in politics on issues such as equal marriage and abortion is not to be ignored. Even if you don't think it has any sway this is a case of equality laws being flouted and therefore if you're a feminist you should pay attention. | this is a case of equality laws being flouted and therefore if you're a feminist you should pay attention. |
Just as you would think feminism would be without misogyny and full of support and love for all women, you might think Christianity would be ...full of support and love for all. They could be if weren't for the involvement of humans. I think we should just let rabbits run things. Until it all goes Watership Down. Or perhaps sloths. Look if we can find an animal that doesn't ever eat its young I say vote it in.
The blogger God Loves Women recorded a recent incident in which an Evangelist conference was announced by Canon J John with no women speakers. When she tweeted Canon J John rather than respond directly the Canon tweeted that he'd noticed "interesting chatter on Twitter. We did invite women to speak at conf. But unavailable. We support both Men + Women Evangelists."
God Loves Women wrote: "That J. John chose to describe my legitimate concerns about the lack of representation of women as "chatter" greatly saddens me. This is further compounded in his assertion that they asked women and that no women were available. To state that out of all the female evangelists working fulltime on sharing the Gospel across the UK, none were available is outrageous."
As God Loves Women points out, rather than show how irrelevant the Church has become it shows how women continue to be ignored and those who get to positions of power are seemingly resented not through their inability to perform their professional role but their insistence on performing it as women.
Squeamish Kate
The blogger God Loves Women recorded a recent incident in which an Evangelist conference was announced by Canon J John with no women speakers. When she tweeted Canon J John rather than respond directly the Canon tweeted that he'd noticed "interesting chatter on Twitter. We did invite women to speak at conf. But unavailable. We support both Men + Women Evangelists."
God Loves Women wrote: "That J. John chose to describe my legitimate concerns about the lack of representation of women as "chatter" greatly saddens me. This is further compounded in his assertion that they asked women and that no women were available. To state that out of all the female evangelists working fulltime on sharing the Gospel across the UK, none were available is outrageous."
As God Loves Women points out, rather than show how irrelevant the Church has become it shows how women continue to be ignored and those who get to positions of power are seemingly resented not through their inability to perform their professional role but their insistence on performing it as women.
Squeamish Kate
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