How times change!

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Sometimes change comes gradually, sometimes it happens in jumps. In my lifetime for example, homosexuality has gone from just about being decriminalized to now practically being celebrated and gay marriage being legal. In the Church of England when I was young all priests were male and there was little support for the idea of women being ordained. But then in 1994 the first women were ordained as priests in the Church of England and since then it’s hard to imagine the Church without them – our local church has had a woman priest for at least the past 15 years and I imagine the Church would struggle to keep going without them; women now make up about a third of the active clergy and for the past two years they have made up 54% of new trainees. Next hurdle was the question of Bishops; again there was a long struggle and much heated debate but women were allowed to become Bishops in 2015. On Friday Sarah Mulally was elected the new Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and ceremonial head of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. Sarah was originally a nurse who rose to become the youngest-ever chief nursing officer for England. She then trained as a priest in 2006, was elected Bishop of London in 2018 and has now become the head of the whole institution. I wish her all the best in this new role, it certainly isn’t an easy one but I’m sure she will do well.