Female Bishops Opt Out of Pre-Lambeth London visit
Episcopal News Service. April 3, 1997 [97-1727W]
(AJ) A Church of England priest recently criticized the women bishops of the Anglican Communion for having cancelled a proposed meeting with the English Church. The Rev. Donald Reeves, rector of St. James' Church, near London's Picadilly Circus, called the cancellation "discourteous," especially after all the bishops had originally enthusiastically accepted his invitation. Reeves said that he proposed the visit in order to allow the bishops to meet together and to allow the English to meet the women bishops and become more comfortable with the idea of women in the episcopacy. Bishop Victoria Matthews, suffragan in the Diocese of Toronto, said she was initially excited about the invitation, when she believed Bishop Penelope Jamieson of Dunedin, New Zealand, would be coming. It showed promise, Matthews said, that St. James had a commitment from the bishop who was furthest away. "Then I had gotten a fax saying (Bishop Jamieson) was now not going to come. Then, Barbara Harris (suffragan of Massachusetts) told me she was not going to be able to come, at which point it ceased to be a meeting of women bishops," Matthews said. Reeves had raised $8,800 for the visit and had arranged two public meetings at St. James Church where the women would celebrate the eucharist.