The autumn of 2013 saw two landmark decisions in the Anglican churches of the British Isles. On 12 September 2013 the Governing Body of the Church in Wales voted in favour of legislation to permit the ordination of women as bishops. On 20 September 2013 it was announced that on the previous day the Revd Patricia Storey had been elected as Bishop of Meath and Kildare. She was duly consecrated on 30 November 2013 and enthroned in her two cathedrals in early December. The Scottish Episcopal Church permits the ordination of women to the episcopate, but to date none has been elected to an episcopal see.
The consecration of a woman bishop in Ireland may be seen to have consequences in the Church of England in a way that the presence of women bishops in many other provinces has not. The consequences hinge on the law of the Church of England itself regarding the recognition and status of clergy ordained or holding appointments in Anglican churches outside England.
BACKGROUND
Questions about the recognition or otherwise of episcopal acts performed by a woman bishop are not new. The topic reared its head in the Church of England at the time of the consecration of the first Anglican woman bishop in the Episcopal Church of the USA in 1989. At this point women had not been ordained as priests in the churches of the British Isles. In advance of this event the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement in November 1988 in which he stated that in the exercise of their powers under the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure 1967 he and the Archbishop of York would not issue permission to minister in the Church of England to priests or deacons ordained by a women bishop overseas.Footnote 2 The 1967 Measure lays down rules for permitting clergy ordained overseas to minister in the Church of England; permission is to be granted by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York acting jointly. The 1988 policy statement attempted to solve a conundrum whereby the Church of England would be in communion with a Church which had women bishops while at the same time not itself permitting the ordination of women as priests or bishops. The conclusion was ‘that the Church of England does not canonically accept the ministry of either women priests or bishops of other Churches, unless and until the ecclesiastical law is changed specifically to allow this or to allow the Church of England itself to ordain women to the orders of priest or bishop’. It is therefore clear that, until the ordination of women as priests in the Church of England, women priests coming from abroad were not given permission to exercise the ministry of their priests' orders until such time as the ordination of women priests was possible in England.Footnote 3
In 2004 the Legal Advisory Commission of the Church of England issued an Opinion,Footnote 4 prompted by a request from the House of Bishops' Working Party on Women in the Episcopate. This detailed opinion concluded inter alia that:
i. The 1967 Measure refers to the recognition, or otherwise, of orders of churches rather than orders conferred by individual bishops;
ii. The validity of ordinations carried out in a Church in communion with the Church of England is a matter for the canon law of that Church and is assumed by the 1967 Measure;
iii. There are public policy reasons why, until such time as it may become possible for women to become bishops in the Church of England, the Archbishops may not permit (under section 4 of the 1967 Measure) overseas bishops who are women to perform episcopal functions (confirmation or ordination) in England;
iv. While there is a statutory power for a bishop to refuse (without giving reason) to license or institute a priest or deacon ordained in the Scottish Episcopal Church,Footnote 5 such limitations do not apply to those ordained in the Church of Ireland or Church in Wales.
Details of individual applications and grants of permission under the 1967 Measure are not made public. There is much anecdotal speculation but it is not clear whether, since 2004, the archbishops have permitted priests (male or female) ordained overseas by female Anglican bishops (or by female bishops of the Lutheran Churches that are signatories to the Porvoo Agreement) to minister in the Church of England. The 1967 Measure does not provide for an appeal against a decision by the archbishops not to grant permission under the Measure. The 2004 Opinion reports that women bishops attending the Lambeth Conference 1998 were asked by Archbishop Carey not to perform episcopal functions while in England and anecdotal evidence suggests that this remains the practice for visiting women bishops.
THE CHANGING SCENE
However, the consecration of a woman as a bishop in the Church of Ireland will change the situation. Deacons, priests and bishops of the Church of Ireland, Church in Wales and Scottish Episcopal Church are not considered as ‘overseas’ clergy by the law applying to the Church of England. This is significant, as the permission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York is not required for such ministers to be invited to exercise the ministry of their orders in England.
While there may be public policy reasons why the bishops of the Church of England may decide not to delegate any of their episcopal functions to a woman bishop from the Church of Ireland it is difficult to see how they could prevent those deacons and priests ordained by her from ministering in their dioceses. Section 1 of the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1995 states that clergy of the Church of Ireland may be invited to minister in parishes ‘subject to the same conditions as would be applicable to them if they had been admitted to Holy Orders by the bishop of a diocese in the Church of England’. Canon C 8 allows a minister having the cure of souls or the sequestrator of a vacant benefice to invite a minister (which includes ordained ministers of the Church of Ireland) to minister temporarily (for less than seven days in a three-month period) without reference to the bishop of the diocese concerned. Bishops, likewise, are able to institute, collate, license or permit to officiate any ministers of the Church of Ireland provided that they are otherwise qualified. The sex of their ordaining bishop is simply not relevant under the law as it currently stands.
RESOLUTIONS A AND B
There are, of course, possible restrictions in the current law governing the Church of England on the ministry of some clergy based on gender. The Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993 permits Parochial Church Councils to pass Resolutions A and B set out in Schedule 1 of the Measure. Resolution A prevents a priest who is a woman from presiding at or celebrating Holy Communion or pronouncing the Absolution in the parish; Resolution B prevents the appointment of a female incumbent, priest-in-charge or team vicar in the benefice. The Canons of the Church of England take into account these resolutions.Footnote 6 These resolutions apply equally to any clergy, so the ministry of women priests from the Anglican churches of the British Isles or from the Anglican or Porvoo Communions will be restricted by them.
However, it is contended that the 1993 Measure and its resolutions do not confer any power to decline the ministry of a male priest ordained by a female bishop in the Church of Ireland, Church in Wales or Scottish Episcopal Church.Footnote 7 It is probable that any provision for those opposed to the ordination of women as priests and/or bishops in the Church of England will, when enacted, provide a mechanism for such ministry to be declined. Unless and until that happens it is difficult to see how a male priest ordained by the new Bishop of Meath and Kildare could be prevented, on that basis alone, from ministering in the Church of England.
