But first Canterbury:
Canada’s leading female Anglican cleric has courted controversy at a major church conference in Britain by predicting the eventual rise of a woman as archbishop of Canterbury.
“The signposts are pointing in one direction,” former Edmonton Bishop Victoria Matthews told Reuters yesterday during a global gathering of Anglican bishops at the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference. “I would be very surprised if it wasn’t accepted worldwide.”
Bishop Matthews, whose selection in February as the bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand, sparked an uproar among conservative Anglicans in that country, also shot back at Vatican officials who have complained the Church of England’s July 8 decision to begin appointing female bishops poses “a further obstacle for reconciliation” between Catholics and Anglicans.
“With the greatest respect, the Vatican has to understand the Anglican Communion is not synonymous with the Church of England,” Bishop Matthews said in the interview. “The Anglican Communion has had women in the episcopate for about 20 years. They really need to do their homework and realize that the communion is 38 provinces and not one with satellites. That is a pretty significant error.”
And here she is, prepared and ready.
I think that this is the same woman who way back in the 80’s visited my old Parish of St. James the Apostle – Brampton ON. I had a brief conversatin with her about certain passages in the Bible (although I cannot remember which specific passages). I was shocked to here her say “that is just St. Paul at his most appauling”. If this is the same woman, than how can anyone justify her in any leadership position in the Church? Anyone who thinks of any passage as “appauling” should not be a Priest (never mind a Bishop).