CHERIE BLAIR has urged the Anglican and Catholic churches to stop “marginalising” women or face terminal decline. “Today, while women remain marginalised, Christianity cannot flourish. Women and men must be equal partners for 21st century Christianity,” she said.
Her forthright remarks, in a programme she presents tonight on Channel 4, marks an escalation in her campaign to change the culture of the church.
She is one of the most influential lay figures in the church, a position which has been enhanced by her husband’s conversion to Catholicism after he stepped down as prime minister.
Blair points out in the programme that it is women who have traditionally passed religion on to their children. “But when it comes to the public face of Christianity, now women are virtually invisible,” she adds.
“Down the centuries, women have formed the backbone of faith communities,” she says. “Until the churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?”
The Vatican refuses to ordain women priests, while the Anglican Communion has been split by demands for the introduction of female bishops.
Interviewing Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Blair says: “If you actually look at the formal structures of the Catholic church, you don’t see a woman’s face when you see people speaking for the church. Can we change that?”
Blair also met Laura Bush, the wife of the former US president, for the documentary, and punctures the myth that their husbands prayed together before going to war in Iraq. “This never happened, of course,” says the former first lady. She also quashes reports that claimed her husband “thought God told him things”.
In a separate interview for BBC1’s Politics Show today, Blair says women should use the opportunity presented by recession to prove their worth in the workplace. She says crisis-hit businesses were more likely to “take a chance” on recruiting female employees.
“There is an opportunity for women to show how much they can contribute, and be part of the solution, not the problem,” she says.
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(Source: TOUK)