Episcopal Press and News

Controversy Over Women Priests in Australia Takes New Twist

Episcopal News Service. April 24, 1992 [92095]

The 10 women who were recently ordained in Perth may be pulled into the continuing controversy elsewhere in Australia.

The plaintiffs who succeeded in stopping ordination of women in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, New South Wales, did not succeed in stopping the March 7 ordinations in Perth, which is in Western Australia. Writs have been served on the women priests in Perth, however, which could involve them in action against Bishop Owen Dowling of Canberra and Goulburn. The intent is to legally question the ordination of women, but most observers question whether a ruling by the court in one area would be binding elsewhere in the country.

In a related action, this summer's General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia will face a proposal by the church's largest diocese, in Sydney, that would allow any of the 24 dioceses to secede if they object to women's ordination.

Sydney is also proposing that individual parishes could leave their diocese and affiliate with a diocese more theologically compatible. A similar attempt in the Episcopal Church in the United States has met with stiff opposition and charges that the creation of a nongeographic diocese would be "potentially schismatic."

While the supporters of the proposals face an uphill battle, they further fuel the debate that is raging throughout the 3.7-million-member Australian church, a debate that threatens the unity hammered out by a national constitution in 1962. Three-quarters of the dioceses and all five of the major diocesan sees must approve such changes.