The news of her appointment as the eighth bishop of Christchurch was heralded by a phone call at 4.30 one morning in February and was greeted with “excitement and delight, and a firm prayer to God that `we’re in this together You made this happen so don’t leave me now’.”
[Victoria] Matthews has just returned from the Lambeth Conference, the once-in-a-decade worldwide gathering of the Anglican Church which the Bishop of Nelson, Richard Ellena, described as the “most expensive exercise in futility” he had ever been to.
The 20-day conference was attended by 650 bishops and cost around $15 million to stage but seemed to do little to heal the schism over the appointment of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.
“I couldn’t disagree more,” Matthews said of Ellena’s comments. “It was a profound gathering. We went in with our differences… but as time went on people began to see they needed to set aside their differences and stay together for the sake of the Church. That’s not an exercise in futility.”
Matthews is part of the Anglican Communion that agreed at the conference not to go ahead with the blessing of same-sex unions but is open to further discussion on it.
“As I understand it the Anglican Church, in this province, recognises two ways of life. One is marriage, which is between a man and a woman. And the other is celibacy. But if you think I’m going to be the sexual police, you’re wrong. I’m not going to be out with my torch peering into people’s bedrooms to see what they’re up to.”
I wish the lady well. It’s a great improvement over the climate in Edmonton, and Lord knows New Zealand needs all the conservatives — moderate or not — that it can get, being as it is the home of such Anglican divines as Jenny Te-Paa.
“But if you think I’m going to be the sexual police, you’re wrong. I’m not going to be out with my torch peering into people’s bedrooms to see what they’re up to.”
Nobody expects the Canuck Inquisition …