First female Archbishop of Canterbury

[KitchenSinkLlama]

I’ll preface this by stating I’m an atheist so have no affiliation here.

I do hope that having a woman at the helm of a church will see a more transparent institution and more rigorous responses to alleged abuse from within its ranks.

good. And I hope there is no amnesty/mismanagement for the members of the clergy who should have been investigated. meanwhile there will be some members of congregations who will be livid that a woman A WOMAN!!! is leading the CofE.

Bring it on! We need a female pope next. 🤣

I’d rather have someone who actually believes. Faith is the thing that should matter for the head of the Church, not sex. And I no longer think those who climb the grease pole of the CofE believe.

Cleverly, the CofE establishment have ensured there’ll only be a woman in post for a few years-then things can go back to normal…..

Sadly the % of senior clergy who actually believe the Bible is depressingly small - there are some, but I suspect that the liberal factions won the day...

No issue with whether the Archbishop is male or female - though it will cause a lot of issues with those in the Evangelical wing of the church who believe in complementarianism - i.e. that headship is male; they have often fudged being under female headship by noting that ultimate headship (under Christ this is the ABC) is male - no longer...

will be interesting to see what falls out from this.

I think thats unfair. They may differ from you in some areas of biblical interpretation, and they may well fail to live out biblical mandates at times (don’t we all) but to dismiss the entire senior leadership of the C of E as having no faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, is hard to justify. We’re not living in Don Cupitt times any more.

But on topic, I am thrilled. She wouldn’t have been my top choice, but she’s a good brave choice. Now to sort out safeguarding, root out corruption, and make bold progress on same sex marriage. A small task list.

Mixed feelings-
I'm pleased it's a woman and think she's likely to do a good job on safeguarding, which is desperately needed.
She has a strong interest in parishes as the basis of the Church, the importance of local networks and of our physical churches (so undermined during covid).
She seems a good person.
However-
I worry that she will continue Welby's style of trying to sell the Church to a new congregation by downplaying the transcendent- maybe people will be more likely to join the Church if it's less like a Church and more like everything else?- which I think is completely misguided. It's the High Anglican churches that are seeing growth in numbers- people are desperate for ritual and beauty not jumble sales and the bloody Alpha course.

I’m an atheist so also have no skin in the game. I think with her background in nursing she will be very attuned to safeguarding (like previous posters have said) which will hopefully force some stubborn people to face its terrible past. I think she can root out people who want to cause harm and exclude them on a permanent basis. If she’s the best person for the role then kudos to her.

I am also an atheist, but am pleased. And if this leads to schism, so be it.

I hope that as someone coming from a different career - especially nursing - she’ll have a different sense of ministry to the “career CofE” types. It sounds quite a positive appointment, I think.

I totally agree.

I agree with @SevenHundredandFortyThreeThreeI was sitting next to a young guy in church last week and we had a rather lively and fun service for the children’s uniformed organisations, held monthly. It was his first time in church and we chatted about the different services held there. What he wanted was to sit in a quiet, sacred space in a quiet, reflective service. That, from my experience is what is drawing the spiritually curious and largely unchurched. They want a holy and sacred space

Well, there’s surely no shortage of those. He just chose his service poorly or unluckily.

I was responding to the pp’s point about people being desperate for ritual and beauty which is why High Anglican ( and Catholic) churches are seeing a rise in numbers. Holy, sacred spaces. The young man’s conversation confirmed the pp’s observation

Well my church is delighted, at least the people I’ve spoken to today. She’s fairly traditional compared to some of the names floating around too. I completed the form parishioners could voice opinion a few months ago and suggested her!

Well my church is delighted, at least the people I’ve spoken to today. She’s fairly traditional compared to some of the names floating around too. I completed the form parishioners could voice opinion a few months ago and suggested her!

I would disagree. It’s quite hard to find a BCP service round here, most are family worship style.

She’s very pro lbtq apparently but I wish she would fight for Christian values in a modern day society for everyone, not just sections of the population.

How would you personally define Christian values in a modern society? Because in my experience (from knowing many Christians, all good people) that is a highly personal and diverse thing.

This feels like the first time in years that a decision with a little courage behind it has been taken instead of the pale, stale, defensive way forward. What a day!

Maybe it's me getting older but as time goes on I have become tired of so called leaders preaching and telling us how to live our lives, The scandals of their own house make me question their judgment too.

Interesting times for the CofE.

However great she may be and I pray she does well I think it’s a poisoned chalice

I’m a lifelong CofE Christian and I think we are seeing its death throes and Gos is moving in different ways.

Parish churches are literally dying off and being kept alive by a small number of dedicated volunteers, a small number which is steadily decreasing.

They have no money and being told to pay ridiculous amounts of parish share. I think the whole thing is incredibly badly managed. It seems to think it’s above employment law and that before I’ve touched on the abuse cover ups

@WhitegreeNcandle funny you should say that

I'm thinking of going to church

I was pleased to see this appointment just in general, but I'm aware that most senior appointments come with a whole bunch of baggage these days that I don't believe in

However, I do wonder if the church is going to see a revival

I'm dithering because when younger I was an atheist

Went to church in my previous area as more of a community thing and they were incredibly helpful when my father was dying

I now would like to try again in my new area, but no idea what to expect. My previous church was very much accepting of non-believers and believed that church was there to serve the community

But in the middle of all that, I'm starting to at least want to find faith.

A PP has commented that they would rather have someone in post who has faith and says a high percentage of them don't? That's a surprise to me. Is that correct?

@EmeraldRoulette i hope I haven’t put you off by being too negative! My current expertise of a CofE church is a new vicar who is more worried about telling his servers off for pouring consecrated wine down a drain than spreading the gospel.

I still support it as I believe the church building is a core part of our community and I would be so sad to see it close.

However I also go to a Vineyard church which is way more happy flappy and evangelical than I thought I’d like. But I’m part of a small group of Christian women who support each other in amazing ways. It really reminds me of the early church described in the NT. They run all sorts of things - hosted a Xmas lunch last year for people in town who had no one or no food. 60 odd guests turned up and were fed, entertained and welcomed by the Vineyard.

Go and try lots of different churches. Find a vicar or pastor you like and ask ask and ask away. Don’t be worried about it at all.

Id also highly recommend the Podcast by Justin Brierley called The Surprising rebirth of belief in God. I find the debates he hosts very thought provoking and interesting.

Good luck on your journey