When we meet in the Crewe YMCA, she has just been touring the building surrounded by a small cloud of cameras and journalists and is preparing to say goodbye to her congregation at a party this evening. They only found out this morning that she would be leaving them to become a bishop. When we talk about the church at St Peter\u2019s Hale, Lane seems a little emotional as she is clearly sad to be leaving them behind, but for the rest of the interview, she is as polished as any politician I\u2019ve ever interviewed.<\/p>\n
The first ever woman bishop, appointed after years of campaigning and fighting in the Church of England, is so keen not to cause any more fights that she tries to avoid saying anything particularly striking during the interview. She refuses to put herself on one side or another when I ask whether she sees herself as a liberal, a conservative, an evangelical, or something else. Speaking in that special Anglican way \u201d\u201c a slightly slower-than-usual pace of words that linger a little longer over vowels, especially \u201d\u02dcGod\u2019, which becomes \u201d\u02dcGo-od\u2019, and thoughtful-sounding pauses \u201d\u201c she says:<\/p>\n
\u201d\u02dcI would describe myself as a Christian and as a passionate Anglican and that\u2019s how I would describe myself. I have been formed and shaped by a whole breadth of the Church of England\u2019s tradition and experience and been really enriched by that and I want to hold onto that breadth and the richness that I have got in Christ and all the traditions of the Church.\u2019<\/p>\n