Jenan Taylor
16 August 2023
Women’s ordination advocates in Sydney are preparing to mark 40 years championing women’s leadership in ministry across Australia.
The Movement for the Ordination of Women Sydney chapter will celebrate the activism of founding president Dr Patricia Brennan, in particular.
Dr Brennan’s arguments for the ordination of women in the Anglican Church made her a visible figure for change across the country in the 1980s.
Current president Dr Elaine Lindsay said through Dr Brennan’s leadership the MOW became a force for change nationally, despite other state-based groups, including Adelaide’s Women in Holy Orders? also supporting the ordination of women at the time.
Read more: Young Anglicans unaware of opposition to women priests in some dioceses
As well as inspiring Anglican women from all Australian dioceses, Dr Brennan’s work encouraged women in the Uniting and Catholic Churches to pursue women’s ministry leadership, Dr Lindsay said.
She said some of the earlier challenges Dr Brennan and the movement navigated included different ideas for how reform might best be achieved.
Dr Lindsay said on one hand there was the idea that women shouldn’t be ordained because that would make them part of the problem. On the other, there was the view that to change the system you had be inside it.
She said the MOW in Sydney continued to navigate with difficulty its location in the heartland of opposition to women’s leadership in the Church.
But Dr Lindsay said it had a role there.
“I call it the ‘ministry of irritation’ or ‘ministry of witness’. We still have to say there are women who want to be ordained. It’s not enough for dioceses opposing women priests to just say to women, ‘Well go to another diocese.’,” she said.
“We need to remind the Sydney diocese, particularly, that there are and have been women in the pews who actually wanted to be ministered to by women as well as men.”
Read more: Struggle continues despite 30 year milestone for women’s ordination
Dr Lindsay said the group was also there to remind people in other dioceses who thought the ordination question was settled that it was easy to slide backwards, because churches could be colonised by people who stood against women’s ordination.
The 40th anniversary celebrations will be held at Christ Church St Laurence on Sunday 17 September.
The Archbishop of Perth Kay Goldsworthy will preach at 9.00 am and 10.30 am services.
Melbourne diocese’s Reverend Canon Dr Colleen O’ Reilly will deliver the Dr Patricia Brennan AM lecture in honour of the founding president at a 12.30pm lunch.
For further information contact ruthchampion47@gmail.com
To book, visit mowatch.com.au.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Twitter, or subscribe to our weekly emails.
