Canon Ulla Monberg attends the College of Bishops


Last month's meeting of the Church of England's College of Bishops was extended by a day to go into conference mode. One woman priest of senior standing was appointed by each Diocesan Bishop to attend this conference which was entitled “Women’s Ordained Ministry and the Transformation Agenda” which was held on 19 September. Bishop Geoffrey invited the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg to be the woman representative of this diocese.

The conference on 19 September, almost 20 years since the first women’s ordination to the priesthood in the C of E, explored what enables and what hinders the development of women’s ordained ministry.The bishops and women clergy worked in small groups and in plenary and panel sessions addressing and discussing these two questions:
                            What enables women’s ordained ministry to flourish?   
                            What are the barriers to the flourishing of women’s ordained
                            ministry?

The conference was also brought up to date on the work of General Synod towards proposals for Women in the Episcopate. 

The day ended with a Eucharist celebrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a hall in St Hugh's College, Oxford where we were surrounded by portraits of distinguished women alumni of St. Hugh’s, a college founded specially to educate women, including the striking portrait situated just above the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Burmese leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

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