The Merimbula Lake Boardwalk, Merimbula NSW 2019
(Photo krb)
It was a hot Sunday afternoon in February 32 years ago. A group of 17 of us gathered at St Saviour's Cathedral, our Diocesan Cathedral, in Goulburn, ready for the annual service of ordination to the priesthood. Of this group 11 were women, many of whom had been waiting for years for this moment to arrive. In December the year before our Bishop had told us that the advice that he had received indicated that there was no impediment to the ordination of the women proceeding. He also said that he believed that he was called by God to proceed with the ordination, the first ordination of women to the priesthood in this diocese and indeed, in eastern Australia.
There was massive support across Australia from within the church and in the wider community for the bishop's decision and it was expected therefore that the congregation would be enormous and this turned out to be the case. All of us six men had been working alongside the women in one way or another as we journeyed together over the years preparing for ordination and we were enthusiastic supporters of the women in this process. For my part, I never thought that there should have been any barrier to the ordination of women in the Anglican Church. Some Australian Churches had had a long history of women in ministry and a relative of mine, Janet Wade was the first woman ordained in the Uniting Church in 1977.
We had been in the pre-ordination retreat at Bishopthorpe, the then diocesan retreat centre from the Thursday evening and everything was going smoothly but there was some apprehension about what the opponents to women's ordination (particularly the conservative Sydney diocese) might do in response to our diocese moving to ordain this first group of women. In my naivety I believed that at this stage they would not be so aggressively misogynistic as to intervene in the process. How wrong I was! At lunch on the Friday the Bishop received word that three men, 2 from Sydney diocese and one from our own Diocese had taken out an interim injunction in the NSW Supreme Court preventing the bishop from ordaining the women until the matter had been considered by the General Synod of the Australian Church. Everyone was deeply shocked and devastated as were the people of the diocese and the wider church.
There is much more to this story. It marked the beginning of an enormous shift in the life of our diocese and for me of the letting go of my naivety. It was the sad discovery that often church politics trump the will of God, Of course, the church can be better than this, but I doubt that it ever will be.
Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch with me any time to say g'day.
Peace justyice and blessings to all.
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