Tuesday, February 14, 2012

More new C of E women priests than men for first time

More female priests are joining the Church of England than male ones for the first time ever, it can be disclosed as it takes another step towards the introduction of women bishops.

Official figures show that 290 women were ordained in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available.

By contrast, just 273 men entered the priesthood.

The watershed moment comes less than 20 years since the Church first allowed women to be priests, in the face of opposition from Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals who believe that only men can be church leaders.

Back in 1994, just 106 women were ordained compared with 299 men.

Overall there were still more than twice as many ordained men (8,087) as women (3,535) in 2010.

Sally Barnes, spokesman for the campaign group Women And The Church, said: “The figures are very good news. They show the increasing numbers of women whose vocations are being recognised, accepted and valued by the Church.”

But detailed breakdown of the figures, published in The Church of England Yearbook 2012, shows that most of the new women priests are “self-supporting” rather than having full-time clergy jobs.
 
Among men, 173 chose when they entered theological training colleges to be stipendiary priests and 100 decided to take other jobs alongside unpaid work in parishes.