Madam, – In your Editorial on women bishops (July 16th) you state that “In the Church of Ireland there has been little discussion to date on the issue”. The Church of Ireland, unlike the Church of England, provided for the ordination of female bishops at the same time as it provided for the ordination of female clergy. So there is no legal impediment to the ordination of a female bishop in the Church of Ireland. It is up to each diocesan electoral college to vote for and approach the person they feel most suited to the position of bishop of their diocese (except in the case of Armagh where the other bishops decide). But that does not mean that there is no basis for discussion.
The ordained ministry of the Church of Ireland shares many of the same problems encountered in any profession that has been a male preserve traditionally. The rigidity and stultification of a predominantly male power structure has its own ways of resisting change beyond the written word. For instance, the role played by male-only sports and social clubs and the networks they engender are very real avenues of preferment that are not open to all equally.
The Church of Ireland needs to review how advancement works in practice as well as theory, like any organisation should. And it benefits greatly from publications like yours keeping an inquisitive light upon its actions, or inactions. But the challenges it faces in this regard are not specific to it and are present in many areas of Irish society. That does not permit complacency on the question – far from it.
The Church of Ireland has gone so far, but there is farther still to travel and examples of moral and ethical leadership to be taken up. – Yours, etc,