Yes 2 Women Bishops is holding a conference on Saturday 16 March 2013, from 10.00am to 3.00pm, at Christ Church, New Malden in Southwark Diocese.
Yes 2 Women Bishops is holding a conference on Saturday 16 March 2013, from 10.00am to 3.00pm, at Christ Church, New Malden in Southwark Diocese.
The event is being co-hosted with Fulcrum, a broad evangelical network within the Church of England, and will feature three keynote speakers: Stephen Kuhrt, vicar of Christ Church, New Malden, Chair of Fulcrum and member of the Yes 2 Women Bishops team; Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Hackney and General Synod member; and Jody Stowell, Curate, All Saints’ Harrow Weald, Editor of Fulcrum, Yes 2 Women Bishops team member and recently co-opted onto the WATCH (Women and the Church) National Committee.
The event “will inspire, encourage and teach on the subject of women bishops, and give us a chance to consider the best way forward now that the Church of England is restarting the legislative process”, say the organisers.
Stephen Kuhrt, writing at Fulcrum, explains: “What is now the best way forward for those of us still strongly in favour of women bishops? One major lesson is that the positive value of women’s ministry needs to be spelt out a great deal more. Too much of the discussion around the time of the Synod vote was centred upon the issues that its opponents were concerned about. This meant that women bishops was presented far too much as ‘a problem to be solved’ rather than a wonderful opportunity for the church to move forward to greater fullness and enrichment. From this basis, it was not surprising that opponents were unable to see that the ‘safeguards’ they sought would have fatally impaired the proper ministry of women bishops. Even those in favour of women bishops were rather too reluctant to express that this was a development that they believed would turn the church completely upside down. But this now needs saying and clearly enough to be heard. Those of us in favour of women bishops are so because we are determined to see the church becoming far more faithful to the Bible and far more relevant in its mission and ministry. The full ministry of women, is, in our opinion, completely critical to this transformation taking place and whilst opponents will obviously disagree with this, they must understand this as the reason why it is impossible for us to agree with many of the restrictions that they want imposed upon women bishops.”
* More here: http://www.yes2womenbishops.org/2013/02/women-bishops-church-in-all-its-fullness.html
* Fulcrum: Renewing the Evangelical Centre: http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/