The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) yesterday made history by appointing the first female Anglican bishop on the continent.Excellent news! Women have a long way to go to reach equality in the churches throughout the world, but The Revd Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya's election is a fine beginning in the Anglican church in Africa.
The Revd Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya, 61, became the bishop-elect of Swaziland and the first woman bishop in any of the 12 Anglican Provinces in Africa. It is thought she is only the second bishop elected in a mainline church on the continent.
Her election comes as The Anglican Church of Southern Africa -- which also includes Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Lesotho -- commemorates 20 years since the ordination of women to the priesthood as presbyters and bishops. The 1992 synod was, coincidentally, held in Swaziland.
From Torey Lightcap at The Lead:
The Rev. Canon Petero A. N. Sabune, Africa Partnership officer for the Episcopal Church, writes:Amen!
What a glorious day of Joy and wonder for the people of Africa. I was at the Synod in Swaziland in 1992, when the vote was taken to ordain women. The Synod was chaired by The Most Reverend And Metropolitan, Archbishop Mphilo Desmond Tutu and there were tears of joy and thanksgiving. At the Synod last year, Thabo the current Primate lamented on how few dioceses have women priests.
This is the day the Lord has made let us Rejoice and be Glad ! Amen.
Yes, let us indeed rejoice and be glad! And then let those of us in the Church of England hang our heads in shame...Perhaps this is the spur our bishops need so when they meet to review the situation in September, they will think it out again (do you remember Fagin's song in 'Oliver'?)
ReplyDeleteLay Anglicana, I started to say something like, "What about you, England?" in my post, but I didn't want to spoil the joy and muddy the waters for the ACSA. I hope the English HoB wakes up to reality at their meeting. They've had 30 years to review the situation.
ReplyDeleteMimi, small story:
ReplyDeletei was out in the front garden early this morning, weeding and softly singing to myself
the air still reasonably cool, everything so green- even the weeds which comes from my neighbors unweeded lawns!
a neighbor i don't really know stopped on the side walk: what's got you singing this morning?
kind of stopped me in my tracks, then i told him it was news of the first woman bishop in our African church. you should have seen the look on his face. he literally missed his bus telling me about the nightmares of his youth in the church of Rome. he literally had to run to catch the next bus, but called out we'd talk again about this 'lady bishop'
the song i was discretely singing to myself? 'We are walking in the light of God.'
David, what a lovely story. Thank you for sharing with me. We never know to whom we might be ministering, do we?
ReplyDeleteTBTG!
ReplyDelete