Anglicans in New Zealand Elect Woman as Diocesan Bishop
Episcopal News Service. December 8, 1989 [89250]
The Anglican Church in New Zealand has elected the second woman bishop in the Anglican Communion, but the first who will serve as the head of a diocese. The Rev. Dr. Penelope Ann Bansall Jamieson, 47, has been elected the bishop of the Diocese of Dunedin to succeed Bishop Peter Mann, who will retire in late February 1990. As the first woman diocesan bishop, Jamieson will have jurisdiction over parishes and priests in the Diocese of Dunedin, one of nine dioceses in the Anglican Church of New Zealand.
Jamieson said that she was "very surprised indeed" about her historic election and that her priority in the diocese would be "to get to know people, and to set down the roots of a good, strong pastoral ministry in the place."
Her election occurred just over a year after the election of the Rev. Barbara C. Harris as suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Unlike the election process in the United States that chose Harris, the electoral process in the Church of the Province of New Zealand is confidential. After a candidate is nominated, the bishops, standing committees, and the Executive Committee must give assent to the nomination before the nominee is notified and asked to formally accept the nomination.
The election of Harris as the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church touched off a controversy by traditionalists in the Anglican Communion who oppose the ordination of women in the priesthood and the episcopate. In Boston, Bishop Harris responded to the news from New Zealand: "Being the 'first' is both a joy and a challenge. I wish for her the same joy, support, and fulfillment that I have experienced here from the people of Massachusetts."
Harris suggested that Jamieson's election was not only a recognition of her own commitment and service, but also a sign of the church's growing acceptance of women's ministry in the Anglican Communion. "I hope her election may inspire all women to consider whatever service -- ordained and lay -- they can offer to the church. I pray that her election to head a diocese may be the occasion that crystallizes for the entire church the realization that God calls all men and women to equal responsibility for the church's ministry."
The Anglican Church of New Zealand has been ordaining women as priests since 1977. According to 1988 statistics, of 800 clergy, 94 women now serve as priests in the province, comprised of some 200,000 Anglicans. In 1986, the General Synod made a provision for a woman priest to be consecrated a bishop.
"None of us expected that a woman would be elected by a synod quite so soon," said Archbishop Brian Davis, Primate of the Anglican Church in New Zealand, in a statement announcing the election of Jamieson. "It is probably true to say that women have been more fully accepted in the ordained ministry here than in any other province in the Communion," Davis said. "I have not been aware of any tendency in the New Zealand church at large to wish to 'make history' by taking this step," he continued. "Some of our women clergy have been eager to see a woman serving as a diocesan bishop, but most have been relaxed about the timing."
Davis went on to say that "informed comments from some Roman Catholic bishops earlier assured us that should an Anglican women be consecrated a bishop, it would not endanger the very cordial relations Anglicans and Roman Catholic churches enjoy here." He pointed out that an Auckland Roman Catholic synod recently agreed to recommend that women should be ordained priests in the Roman Catholic church.
"The news from New Zealand is very good indeed," said the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. "Their province has experienced the ministry of women as priests as has ours, and simply taken the next step, as did we." Browning said that he offers his prayers and congratulations to Jamieson, the Diocese of Dunedin, and the Province of New Zealand. "I am delighted that the experience we have had in this country has indicated that women in the episcopal role can be a positive step for a church as we experience the fullness of ordained ministry," he continued.
The Most Rev. Robin Eames, Primate of All of Ireland and chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, said, "The election of the first woman to become a diocesan bishop in the Anglican Communion marks a further development in the nature of ministry." Eames noted that the development would raise issues that would need to be discussed at the next meeting of the Eames Commission.
"There now exist fundamental and practical issues about relationships between provinces and dioceses in the light of the Dunedin election that will demand patience, charity, and understanding by the whole Anglican Communion," Eames said.
The consecration of Jamieson as bishop of Dunedin will take place there toward the middle of 1990.
Jamieson was born in Chalfont St. Peter's, Buckinghamshire, England. She earned her Ph.D. degree at the University of Wellington in New Zealand, her M.A. degree at the University of Edinburgh, and her B.D. degree at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She was ordained a deacon in 1982 and a priest in 1983 in the Diocese of Wellington, New Zealand. From 1982 to 1985, she served as assistant curate of St. James, Lower Hutt, and in 1986 was appointed vicar of Karori West and Makara. Jamieson is married to Dr. Ian Jamieson, a reader in English at the Victoria University of Wellington. They have three daughters.