Chapter 35: Lopsided Women’s Ministries = Lopsided Churches?

Judging from many responses to my last blog post, Anglican women's ministry in the Sydney Anglican Diocese is growing. Archbishop Glenn Davies has opened a door to asymmetrical female Anglican ministry, with an intriguing new theology of women's ministry. Archbishop Davies maintains that this new theology of Anglican female ministry is based on divinely accredited assymetric order, not on failed assumptions of patriarchal hierarchy. This distinction is untested, nor has it been proven to be effective.

Unbalanced lopsidedness (asymmetry) in Christian ministry is something that never crossed my mind until I read Archbishop Glenn Davies' recent advocacy for asymmetrical women's ministry. Silly me! I always imagined that Anglican ministry of all kinds is firmly grounded in a balanced relationship with the Holy Trinity, combined with balanced Christian human relationships that are equal under God, as mandated by the founder of Christianity.

So how is a trained, diaconally ordained Sydney Anglican woman expected to carry out her non-hierarchical, but assymertically ordered, supposedly Christian ministry, lopsidedly, in Sydney and beyond? Lopsidedness in ministry sounds like a difficult act to maintain. But we may have nothing at all to worry about. Sydney Anglican women ministers are overseen by an army of thoughtful asymmetrical male ministers who ensure that women deacons and their lay female assistants carry the lopsided weight of their ministerial tasks, while their male colleagues make all the decisions and get all the glory.

But I forget - Sydney already has a well recognised female role model for asymmetrical Anglican women's ministry. The Rev. Lucille Piper, an ordained Anglican priest who has willingly served as a Deacon in the Sydney Anglican Diocese, is also a respected missionary in Papua New Guinea. This saintly Anglican woman priest will, in all likelihood, be disrespectfully dubbed "Lopsided Lu" by the AAAWM (Archepiscopal Advocate for Asymmetical Women's Ministry)! But perhaps she will sensibly flee Sydney, before Archbishop Davies’ misogynistic displeasure descends on her.

The Rev. Lucille Piper: Prophet, Preacher, Missionary and Priest.

Anglican minister Rev. Lucille Piper OAM, known to her friends as Lu, is an outstanding witness for Christ in Australia, and beyond, as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. She has had a wonderfully varied church ministry. Finding herself faced with constantly changing circumstances, she did not hesitate to adapt her ministry flexibly to whatever God and her church communities required of her. 

After becoming a teacher, and being awarded a BA Honours from the University of New England in 1977, Lu went on missionary service in Papua New Guinea during 1968-73 and 1978-81. She served as an Anglican Church Army Officer in the Mosman area during 1984-90. This was followed by study leave and the award of a Bachelor of Divinity from Melbourne College of Divinity in 1994. Lu was deaconed in the Sydney Anglican Diocese in 1991, and priested in the Newcastle Anglican Diocese in 1995, From 1995-2004 Lu ministered at Stroud in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. She returned to church missionary service in Papua New Guinea in 2004-2012. 

Lu's valuable contribution of nearly 20 years service in Papua New Guinea was recognised when she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal. After her return to Australia in 2012, Lu was appointed Assistant Minister at St Luke's Anglican Church, Mosman, where she ministered for several years before retiring from that parish and applying for a general licence to minister and preach in the Sydney Anglican Diocese. She is still awaiting the Diocese's response to her application.

In 2013 Lu was elected Convenor of the Sydney Branch of the Movement for the Ordination of Women, where she meets regularly with young and mature committed Anglican women engaged in Anglican church ministry all over Sydney. In January 2016 Lu returned briefly to Papua New Guinea to oversee the completion of church building works there. She will soon be returning to Sydney. 

Lu is much loved and admired by all who meet and know her. Please support her valuable, outstanding Anglican church ministry, and include her in your prayers.