Number of Women Being Ordained Likely to Decline, Report Says
Episcopal News Service. October 17, 1996 [96-1587P]
(ENI) A recent Church of England report, Numbers in Ministry 1996, predicted a fall in female as well as male ordinations to the year 2001. The report, from the church's Advisory Board for Ministry (ABM), acknowledged that, last year, "some thought... that the number of female ordinands might show an increase." However, more women than men are expected to be ordained as non-stipendiary clergy over the next two years. Non-stipendiary clergy take holy orders but are usually unpaid and continue in their secular work. Christina Reese of the Movement for the Ordination of Women said that overall, she was not disappointed "one bit" about the number of women being ordained. There had inevitably been a huge bulge at the start, she said, after the first ordinations of women as priests in the Church of England in 1994. But she was concerned that so many women were content to be non-stipendiary priests. "The male culture of the church is still putting some women off. Some bishops are readier to accept men than women over 45 for the full-time ministry," she said. According to the report, 81 women and 210 men are expected to join the full-time stipendiary ministry this year (out of a projected total of 10,046 diocesan clergy). In 1997, however, the number of women ordinands will fall back to 65, a level that is set to continue beyond the millennium.