Tuesday 19 December 2017

Sarah Mullally appointed bishop of London



Former nurse appointed to third highest position in C of E says she respects those who object to appointment of a woman

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

A woman has been appointed as the bishop of London, the third position in the Church of England, in a move that delighted campaigners for gender equality but is likely to dismay conservatives in the church.

Sarah Mullally, the bishop of Crediton, has been appointed the 133rd bishop of London, Downing Street announced. She will automatically take a seat in the House of Lords and the post-holder is traditionally dean of the royal chapels.

At a press conference at St Paul’s Cathedral, Mullally said she was “delighted and slightly terrified” at her appointment. She was careful to reach out across theological divisions within the church in her first comments after the announcement, and said she wanted to serve “people of faith and no faith”.
Before becoming a priest, she worked as a nurse in NHS hospitals in the capital, including St Thomas’ and the Royal Marsden, and became chief nursing officer in 1999. She was ordained as a priest in 2001 and made a dame in recognition of her services to nursing in 2005.

“It is a great honour to be nominated to the see of London. Having lived and worked in London for over 32 years, the thought of returning here is about returning home,” she said.

“I am often asked what it has been like to have had two careers, first in the NHS and now in the church. I prefer to think that I have always had one vocation: to follow Jesus Christ, to know him and to make him known, always seeking to live with compassion in the service of others, whether as a nurse, a priest, or a bishop.
“To be given the opportunity to do that now in this vibrant world city is a wonderful privilege.”

London is one of the few areas in which C of E congregations are growing, but it is a complex diocese with a formidable presence of conservatives, both from the Anglo-Catholic and evangelical traditions, who disapprove of women priests.

Mullally told reporters: “I respect those that cannot accept my ministry as a bishop because I am a woman.”

She said the diocese was theologically diverse, and she would work with the bishops of Fulham and Maidstone, who minister to clergy and congregations who do not accept female priests.

The previous bishop of London, Richard Chartres, declined to ordain priests of either gender in order to avoid stirring controversy. Mullally became the first female bishop to lead an ordination service two years ago, when she ordained four clergy, three of whom were women.




Watch, which campaigns for gender equality in the church, said it was “immensely delighted” at the appointment. London was one of the lowest performing dioceses in terms of women in ministry and senior leadership roles, it pointed out.
But Tony Robinson, bishop of Wakefield and chairman of Forward in Faith which does not accept women’s ordination, said Mullally’s appointment in a diocese where so many people rejected the ministry of women would result in ”a deeper impairment of communion”.

viewed as supportive of LGBT equality. The new bishop said London was a very diverse city and that she hoped everyone could find a spiritual home. She did, however, endorse current C of E teaching that marriage was a union between a man and woman, saying: “I absolutely support that.”

William Taylor, the rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, one of London’s largest churches, threatened to break from the C of E earlier this month if the next bishop of London had liberal views on sexuality. The church tweeted its congratulations to Mullally on Monday, and said it looked forward to working with her on “mutual flourishing”.

Jayne Ozanne, a leading LGBT campaigner in the church, said she was “absolutely delighted with this extraordinarily brave, courageous and well-deserved appointment”.

She added: “Her appointment will ensure that the church takes seriously its commitment to learning from medicine and science, particularly in the areas of human sexuality and gender, where we have often been so ignorant.”
Mullally said the church needed more black and minority ethnic clergy and better representation of disabled people, as well as women, in order to better represent the communities it served.

She spoke of deprivation and inequality in London, where some people felt “marginalised, voiceless and angry”. Such emotions had been evident at last week’s memorial service for Grenfell Tower, she said, and many urgent issues remained unresolved.

On safeguarding within the church, she said she would “seek to have a culture … where there is no place for abuse”, and planned to work with survivors and help them flourish.

Gilo, a survivor whose surname is withheld at his request, and who has campaigned for independent oversight of safeguarding within the church, said: “I think survivors will hope this represents a long overdue turning point.


“As third most senior bishop, Dame Sarah Mullally can now take a far more decisive role in championing a compassionate and just response with real structural reformation at last. I hope she invites survivors, men and women, to her enthronement – not as protesters but as presences of the need for authentic justice and healing for all survivors.”


PAT SAYS:

This appointment is a VERY BIG STEP for the Church of England.

However, it will cause serious divisions in the Anglican Communion especially among the conservative churches in places like Africa.

They say you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs. Well, the Anglican Communion is certainly a basket of broken eggs - especially when the 3rd most senior bishop in the Church of England is now a woman.

I used to be against the ordination of women but changed my opinion nearly 20 years ago.

There is no decent scriptural of theological objection to the ordination of women.

It has been about tradition and patriarchy.

But I think it is important to remind ourselves that the ordination of women is NOT A FEMINIST ISSUE.

It is about the place God would want for women in HIS church.

After all MARY was the first person to give the BODY OF CHRIST to the world at the first Christmas.

If a woman can make Christ present LITERALLY then why can she not do it SACRAMENTALLY?

In order to sort all of this out, we need a WHOLE NEW THEOLOGY of church, ministry, and priesthood.

We need to demolish CLERICALISM.

We need to make CELIBACY voluntary.

We need a whole new theology of gender and sexuality.

Hopefully, the Holy Spirit is behind all of this.

If the Holy Spirit is who he is, he is probably the best egg breaker and omelet maker in the world.







49 comments:

  1. Yep that's about it.. Already yesterday's news and man, you can't unfry an egg. There are plenty of C of E women vicars, including black eg in St Paul's, Wood Green where I stand. No big deal really.. only to the press who need catchup real sore

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  2. The usually well-informed "Whispers in the Loggia" blog is reporting that Cardinal Bernard Law is at death's door in a Roman hospital. http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/a-quiet-departure-in-cardinal-laws-last.html?m=1

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  3. What a dame. It's all about HER.

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    1. Did we read the same article?
      Some of it is about her - the only woman out of 133 - as it should be about that feature.
      There is more to it though.
      So no. It isn’t all about her.

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    2. 6.51 : It's all about the Dame...."Pat Buckley..."...! Don't you think?

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  4. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s posting. Expect it to be about Cardinal Law and how he was such a disgrace. He only functioned within the guidelines to his time. Let’s not judge with the perfect sight of looking backwards. May he Rest In Peace.

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    1. So you defend paedophile-protectors like Law, who put the welfare of sexual perverts above the safety of children.

      You've never even heard of Christ, have you?

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  5. No complaints here. The Church has to allow for reason and sensus for fidei the consensus of the faithful. I'm not sure what the resurrection has in store for us but there are indications we will outgrow human sexuality as we now understand it. I too once believed women should not be ordained

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  6. News just in. Cardinal Law has died. Boston will not be in mourning.

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  7. 7.34 The Psalmist was right. We are busy a blade of grass. Many sermons make everyone a saint when they die. I hope God is not compromised by some of His workforce.

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    1. God is not compromised by his workers.

      All of us, his workers, let him down regularly for which, if we are sorry, he forgives.

      However, some of his workers are counterfeit and actually work for his enemy.

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  8. God is not compromised but the work and reputation of His Church is.
    We claim to love and support the "Vine" but we are happy to severely damage its "branches"!
    That doesn't make sense.

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  9. Not a bad place to live out his disgrace. The cancellaria? Tre Fontane Abbey may have been a better place for Bernie’s soul.

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  10. I am amazed at how the Roman Catholic Church which has so much devotion to Mary, devotion which I think goes to far sometimes, is the church which is so anti-women in terms of ordination and in terms of allowing a woman her own choice on contraception and abortion. A church which adores Mary, but decides to not allow woman to become clergy is just pure hypocrisy of the highest order. Well done Church of England, yes it may cause problems in the extreme conservative part of the Anglican communion, but it is the right decision.

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    1. Just a few corrections. We don't adore Mary (a very Protestant misconception). When you say "Well done Church of England" please remind us who founded that Church! A Church that was built on rot and changes its views every two seconds.

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    2. 20:51, yes, the C of E does change (or should I have said 'evolves'). Which is a decidedly good thing, since it indicates a preparedness to admit error. Unlike Roman Catholicism, which NEVER has admitted error...unless constrained to do do.

      Which of the two shows greater humility? (G' wan! Have a guess.)

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    3. As I am sure other posters will also point you to you @ John K... Catholics adore GOD alone. They do not adore Mary, the Mother of God though they do give her the special recognition that is her due since she played an essential role in Incarnation of Christ and was predestined from all eternity to do so as the Old Testament prophecies show again and again.
      Second point I will make to you if I may is that there is absolutely no conflict or anomaly in that we give proper honour and respect to Mary, the Mother of God and proper respect and honour to every other mother, particularly in the sense that we do not encourage any prospective mother to terminate the life of her beautiful infant before birth. Even when the circumstances are less than ideal, we still recognise that little one's equal right to life and so we support the mother. (I do not wish to re-open this debate on the blog tonight as I have written many extensive posts on it before as have many others. So I will leave it at that but I hope I have responded adequately to your speculation that a Church which honours Mary should support abortion. Quite the opposite! To support a woman to bring her new little child safely into the world is one of the most pro-women things that you could do and it shows that you are aware that all life is precious and a gift from God just as Mary treasured her special Child.) I wish you a lovely Christmas, John and hope that this helps.

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    4. 22:12, I have rarely read such self-regarding, self-congratulatory (and, ultimately, self-defeating) claptrap as you have posted.

      The Catholic Church 'gives proper honour and respect to every other mother, particularly in the sense that we do not encourage any prospective mother to terminate the life of her beautiful infant before birth'? (You're male, aren't you? And for this reason are unlikely to spot the implicit blinding irony here: you may not encourage termination of that beautiful child before birth, but you sure as Hell have demanded it afterwards through your moral endorsement of capital punishment and 'just' war.)

      The Catholic Church, because it maitains its moral endorsement of so-called 'just' war (with the inevitability of casualties among non-combatants, including unborn children) has been, and remains, utterly hypocritical and, therefore, unconvincing in its teaching on the 'sacredness' of human life and on abortion.

      Type less and reflect more.

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    5. "Type less and reflect more"!
      writes Magna..after he writes yards and yards of disconnected tripe! No wonder people are so fed up with this sill ass troll!

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    6. Magna... completely misses the point as usual and his wild guesses are wrong needless to say. What an obnoxious bore..

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  11. 6.57
    Like our Sean.....within the parameters of his time.
    May the Lord bless you in your ignorance.
    And it’s tomorrow’s blog not post.

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  12. Pat, your own comments testify to the utter banality of some of your beliefs. You want chabge in everything - sexuality, gender, theology, priesthood, Church, celibacy...etc...Nothing sacred for you anymore. But you seem totally confused. I wonder will you now demand a new interpretation of the Incarnation? What I ask does Christmas really mean for you?

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    1. Only God is sacred. His creation is sacred.

      Not all man made things are sacred.

      Christmas for me is about 2 things:

      1. The Vigil Mass celebrating the coming of Christ.

      2. The Christmas lunch celebrating the love of family and friends.

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  13. Fr Peter Forde of Down and Down Diocese died yesterday also. RIP

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    1. RIP also. Peter was a bit of a mystery.

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    2. Tell us Pat, a bit of a mystery - to whom? You and the world? Pray for the deceased Fr. Forde instead of suggesting something else. I cannot comprehend how you feel it's ok and acceptable to speak unkindly and uncharitably about the dead.

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  14. Cardinal Law's funeral is to be held in St Peter's Bascilia tomorrow presided over by the pope.

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    1. A papal Mass for a paedophile cover up agent!

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    2. What is Francis thinking :-(

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    3. I hope and pray Pat that you never have any misfortunate downfall of any kind. No matter how awful the fall may be, wouldn't you like to have mercy of some kind shown to you. Showing mercy is not to approve of any grave wrongdoing, harm or seriiys sin. Isn't it what the God of Jesus expects? I have been wronged by people in the past. I leave the ultimate judgment to God. Isn't that what a Catholic Funeral Rite is about - praying for the grace of God's mercy and commending that person to the God of love, compassion and mercy! How can you celebrate the birth of Christ, feast gloriously with family and friends and be selective in your mercy? Our standard bearer is Christ, not you, Pat, thankfully. The ever so perfect Pat!!

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    4. You don't get a Requiem Mass because you deserve it.
      You get a Requiem Mass because you need it.
      A Requiem Mass is also a means of strength and consolation to family, friends and colleagues left behind

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    5. Their not letting him hang about . He will hardly have his heels cooled yet

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    6. "They're not letting..."

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  15. Told ya Pat They're all saints when they die. Isn't that right Ted.

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  16. Appearently it is the custom for cardinals who die in Rome. It will be held at the altar of the chair of St Peter. The mass with be red by the Dean of the college of cardinals. The pope preform the rite of commendation after it. It is appalling to think of this, but I suspect it is better for the family of Law not to hold the funeral in the US.

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    1. ‘The Mass will be ‘’red’’ i.e. ‘read.’ ‘?

      You are giving away your age - and your failure to keep abreast of eucharistic and liturgical theology (not to mention English).

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    2. Please, poster 00.02
      explain exactly what is wrong with "giving away your age"may I ask?

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  17. Yes. A requiem Mass asks God for mercy on the departed. Law needs that. Who doesn’t? Seemingly as a priest in Mississippi in the early 1960s he pursued a radical ministry of anti-segregation and inclusion. So no more than your good self, Pat, he wasn’t all bad.

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  18. Will there be some more scandal soon, a Christmas spectacular perhaps? That would be nice.

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    1. So you poster @ 22.33 feel that s "spectacular scandal" is the best and most appropriate way to celebrate the Birth of Christ? Words fail me..

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    2. Oh for Heaven's sake poster @ 22.33 tune in to an episode of Eastenders on the TV or some such programme! Make sure you get your fix of scandal as you are already showing withdrawal symptoms..

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    3. We need some Christmas cheer and +Pat will not let us down I'm sure.

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  19. You didn’t read Rocco. Soldano will celebrate the mass, and the pope will do the final absolutions or whatever they call it nowadays, commendation, is it? He did the same thing for Bartolucci a few years ago. Very boring! How I miss the blessed rite of Sarum! LOL!

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    1. Auld Letterkenny Catholic21 December 2017 at 01:53

      When did the bishop of Rome use the Sarum Rite?Just curious...

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    2. Adrian IV perchance? Sarum would have been a nouus ordo at that point, eh?

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    3. The Sarum Rite was observed only in England (southern England, I think).

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    4. The Wikipedia is not always accurate... But it seems to have attracted a large amateurish following.. Understandable really I suppose..

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  20. Oh, no! Sarum had a huge influence and through the jejune BCP still has. I understand that it challenged other uses in England and was used in Ireland and somehow Portugal rings a bell. I don’t have Archdale A. King at hand but that’s where I probably read this.

    Sarum is basically Roman with a different Gallican mix from the Trentish but with lovely musicology, one could say before the Franciscans and the Curia got their hands on it. . I was amazed to find that a Canadian professor seems to be encouraging a Sarum revival. He has a lot of info on his website both in Latin and English.

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