Women in Leadership blog

This morning I was talking to a woman who was planning to apply for a place on the next Arrow programme. It's great to hear from women who want to be on the programme, and I'm particularly excited this year because we've already heard from several women who are planning to apply. So far, we've heard from more women than men!

The CPAS Arrow programme is designed to develop Christian leaders for the Church of the 21st century. It's more than just another leadership course, and through its unique blend of residential, mentoring, peer support and project work, it aims to transform leaders, addressing issues of call and character as well as competence and confidence.

If you don't know about Arrow you can find out more by clicking here. The deadline for the next Arrow programme, starting in March and running through to autumn 2011, is 3rd December.

But when I remind folks that Arrow is only open to leaders between the age of 25 and 40, I know what response I'll have. 'Why 40?'

There are good reasons, but I know that if you're in your 40s, that does not help!


We had one enquiry today, and it makes me sad that we have to say sorry to some of those who would really value the programme. Many women are frustrated, because by the time you've struggled with what the Bible says about women leaders, with people who encourage men to lead but don't encourage you, and you've negotiated selection, training and ordination or moved into some other leadership role - you find out that when it comes to Arrow, you are 'too old.'

Part of my brief is to help equip women for leadership. If you're reading this, thinking 'I'm over 40 but I'd really love the kind of things which Arrow gives', why not respond to this post? I'd love to hear what you think your greatest needs are when it comes to leadership. ... We are currently thinking about a similar 'not Arrow' leadership programme, and about other ways of helping women to access some of the teaching, insights and opportunities that Arrow gives.

And if you have not already found the resources for women leaders on CPAS's website, click here. We've got a great new CPAS site! In the resources section there are book reviews and articles, and downloadable studies to go with the book Growing Women Leaders.

If you have any comments on all this, do add them to the post, or you can email me directly at rward@cpas.org.uk.

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I'm so excited that the number of members of Awesome has reached one hundred!

The name Awesome is an acronymn for 'Anglican Women Evangelicals: Supporting our Ordained Ministries'. We're a network of ordained Anglican women from across the evangelical spectrum, and aim to support each other and to equip each other for ministry in the Church.

The network was launched in January 2004, so almost six years on it's good that we have attracted good numbers of women, and a record number of 42 at our most recent conference in September. Click here for our website, where there's more information.

Membership has reached 100, and we know that there are more women who support our aims. Some 20+ have been members but are lapsed or no longer active, and many others agree with our aims but find support through other networks.

It can be tough an evangelical woman at this point in the life of the Church of England. Many of our ordained sisters come from a more liberal perspective, while some of our evangelical brothers don't believe that those of us who are priests should be ordained!

But there are always signs of hope around too. I'm excited about a couple of books I've just read. One is called Inspiring Women: discovering biblical role models, and it's about the significance of role models and how to preach some of the women in Scripture so that women find new roles models there. Click here for a review. It's a great little booklet, which deals with some of the tricky passages about women as well as encouraging preachers to look at some of the 'little people' in Scripture. Jehosheba, Sheerah, Shallum's daughters? I'd never heard of them either, but I have now!

What else is good news? Another woman appointed archdeacon: Christine Wilson, currently vicar of Goring by Sea has beeen appointed Archdeacon of Chesterfield, bringing the number of women archdeacons to 15. It's going to take a while to change the climate of the church when it comes to senior leadership, but there's slow progress being made.

I want to change the world, but I realise that progress usually only comes in very small steps.

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I've just received some fascinating results of a survey on 'Women in Senior Posts' (in the Church of England).

A total of 1083 questionaires were returned, from women clergy currently in posts ranging from dean to curate. In response to the question, 'If the opportunity arose some time in the future, would you be prepared to take up a more senior post?' 850 out of that 1083 (78%) said 'Yes'.

This is somewhat at variance with the view that many ordained women are just not interested in posts which come with a high degree of responsibility.

The project was focused around women's aspirations to senior posts, including episcopal ministry. Of most interest to me were responses about other posts which women aspire to, what might prompt them to apply for these posts, and what might prevent them from applying.

Out of those 1083 women, 635 said they'd consider a Team Rector post, 537 being Rural Dean, and 597 a Major Incumbency. What would encourage them to apply? 80% said a personal approach, and only 5.6% said they'd respond to an open advertisement.

If they would not consider a senior post, the first reason given (21.5%) was lack of confidence, followed by the nature of the role, and way down at 2% was geography.

I'm fascinated by this. Almost surprised at the large proportion saying Yes, despite the current situation of deployment patterns. Not surprised that women lack confidence. And moderately surprised at the gap between those who would only respond to a personal response and those who would take the initiative to apply.

If women are up for stepping up, then it seems that the lack of women in senior roles is not so much to do with women's aspiration. So is it, as many have been saying, more to do with hidden bias in the system, and the male leadership culture of the Church? And if so, what is ever going to change it?

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A few weeks ago I was in Greece (sigh! - and apologies for the gap in blog posts).

Warm sunshine, blue skies (mostly), great food, great wine - and Orthodox churches.

We had a great tour guide on our second week, Thanos, who led us on our visits to villages on the island of Evia. He was an active member of the Orthodox Church, and we had some excellent explanations of the design and layout of churches.

What a great lesson in artistic communication, but which is probably sadly lost on most visitors. I am struck again and again by the images of Christ 'Pantocrator' high up in the dome.

But what most interested me was what Thanos said at the end about the Orthodox Church today. He commented on the fact that many clergy are older rather than younger, and the church is struggling to attract younger priests. I learnt some interesting things about the Orthodox vs Roman Catholics: Orthodox have no time for the Pope and infallibility, or for priestly celibacy (except for bishops).

One solution to the shortage of clergy, Thanos explained, is that Anglican clergy are allowed to lead worship in Orthodox churches. Then (not knowing I was a priest) he turned to the subject of women priests. How often I have heard that some sections of the Anglican church don't agree with the idea of women priests because the Orthodox and Catholic Churches don't.

Apparently there has been a vote in the Greek Orthodox Church in favour of women priests (why is this not more widely known? I ask myself). But the Greek Orthodox Church is part of, and smaller than the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Russian Church is not in favour of women priests, so the Greek Church could not proceed as it wished.

So nothing has yet changed in Greece, but to me this does put a rather different take on the 'tradition' perspective... When it comes to women bishops, does the 'tradition' arguement hold as much water as its supporters suggest it does? If at least part of the Orthodox Church supports a move to women being priests (and bishops), where does that leave the 'traditionalists'?

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