Chapter 18: Dr. Sarah Macneil - First Australian Anglican Diocesan Woman Bishop

Today, Saturday March 1st 2014, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Macneil was consecrated the 11th Bishop of Grafton Anglican Diocese at Christ Church Anglican Cathedral Grafton, to loud applause. The Very Reverend Bishop Sarah Macneil is now our fifth Australian Anglican woman bishop, and the first Australian woman elevated to Anglican Diocesan episcopal leadership. Her consecration reflects a forward-looking movement towards cooperative inter-diocesan Anglican ministry that respects the diversity of the Australian Anglican communion. Bishop Macneil was  consecrated by Bishop Stuart Robinson of the Canberra-Goulburn Anglican Diocese, as the official delegate of the Metropolitan Bishop of Sydney, the Very Rev. Glenn Davies. In January 2014 Bishop Davies, speaking at an Anglican Bishops' Convention at Goulburn attended by male and female Anglican Bishops, opened the way to increased communication and collegial ministry cooperation between the Sydney Anglican Diocese and other Anglican Dioceses. 

Bishop Macneil's capable ministry as Dean of St Peter's Anglican Cathedral Adelaide demonstrated her integrity, skill, good judgement and dignity, and following further archdiaconal ministry in the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese she has risen to eminence rapidly. Bishop MacNeil is well capable of applying sound justice and a true sense of Christian values to situations of grave conflict, such as the Grafton Diocese is currently facing.

Rev. Dr. Macneil's consecration places Australia well ahead of the UK in the international Anglican female bishop stakes, despite the fact that Australian Anglican bishops do not currently enjoy "established national Church" status or parliamentary seats. Taking a leaf out of our (de facto if not de jure) disestablished Aussie Anglican book, the UK's tortoise-like waddle towards female Anglican episcopacy may

(according to UK PM David Cameron, as reported in The Telegraph, see

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10462311/Church-of-England-votes-overwhelmingly-for-women-bishops.html)

be shackled to reactive legislation that will deprive the UK's first female Anglican bishops of the House of Lords seats their episcopal brothers have traditionally occupied for centuries. Lest they be made scapegoats of a coincidence, it should be noted that none of the UK Anglican female bishops-in-waiting have been instrumental in the proposed demise of Anglican religious representation in the UK parliament.