Gender is really not an issue, she said in a phone conversation a fortnight ago, just before travelling to the UK to preach at the annual pilgrimage in St Albans. “It’s been a very minor theme. When I was first elected, there was profound objection from a couple of bishops who did not think that women should be ordained. We’ve long ago gotten past that: they decided they didn’t want to be part of the Episcopal Church.
“My gender is really beside the point. I think it was more significant for the Episcopal Church that I was the first scientifically trained Presiding Bishop, and the first Presiding Bishop who was elected from the Western part of the US; and I’m probably the first one who was elected not having spent one’s whole adult life in the Church as a primary vocation.”
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“There is a long history of disagreement in the Episcopal Church. At heart, it’s about how people read scripture. Some people argue for the primacy of scripture, and won’t accept that there are other sources of authority.”
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