The re-election of Christina Rees, a strong supporter of women's
ministries, to the Church of England's Archbishops' Council is a sign
that the church's mainstream wants to move forward on the ordination of
women as bishops, observers say.
"She is part of the mainstream. The trend within the Church of
England is to push ahead and the way forward is towards women as
bishops. Basically, that has been agreed and of course Christina is not
the only person on the Archbishops' Council calling for the ordination
of women as bishops. In a way, it would have been surprising had she not
been re-elected," said Paul Handley, editor of the weekly newspaper
Church Times, in an interview with ENInews.
Rees, who is from Long Island, N.Y., told ENInews from her office in
Cambridge, England: ”I am very grateful to all my peers in the House of
Laity (of the Church of England’s General Synod, its governing body) who
voted for me and I will continue to keep the needs of the whole church,
both lay and ordained members, in the forefront of my mind as I begin a
new terms on the Archbishops' Council.”
The Archbishops' Council has 19 members. It advises the archbishops
of Canterbury (Dr Rowan Williams) and York (John Sentamu) on issues
relating to the policy and resources of the Church of England.
Christina Rees was a founding member of the Council in 1999.
It meets
every six weeks and her new term runs until 2015.
By that time, say
senior members of the Church of England and media commentators, women
will be ordained as bishops in the established church whose head is
Queen Elizabeth II.
Rees works as a women’s rights campaigner, author
and broadcaster, and is a regular contributor to programmes on the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on religious issues.
SIC: Ekklesia/UK