Bishops debate without women

Press, 7 August 1978, Page 6

Bishops debate without women

From

JOHN ROSS

in London

Several of the New Zealand ; bishops attending the Lambeth conference in Canterbury are concerned that the one voice that has been missing in the debate on women priests is that of women themselves. j All 23 speakers in last. ! week’s session on the subject were men — and they inI eluded Roman Catholic and [Greek Orthodox bishops. ! “1 would agree that the Anglican Church at times looks like a male-dominated society, preaching on the place of women without consulting them,” said the Bishop of Dunedin (the Rt Rev. P. W. Mann) at the week-end. It might have been helpful, he said, if a woman priest had given the conference a brief resume of her experience in the priesthood. “It would have allayed

some of the feelings that we are male chauvinists working in this feminine field,” he said. • Some people had criticised the press for highlighting the ordination of women as a topic of major importance at the Lambeth Conference, said Bishop Mann. “In one way they are nrobably right, because it is potentially the most devisive thing which has ever happened in the life of the Anglican communion,” he said. But for him the most crucial topic at the conference was the role of bishops. “I think the work of the bishops and what it means, what kind of leadership we should give, and ways and means by which we can do our job better, are all of the 1 utmost importance,” he said.