A woman’s appointment to the Church of England’s episcopate was much-anticipated, and yet when the church chose the Rev. Libby Lane on December 17 it was a surprise on two counts. First, she was absent from lists of names touted by religion writers, bloggers, or bookmakers. Second, no one expected an announcement quite so soon.
We have here an indicator of how much of the public discourse about the Church of England is London-centric. Lane, vicar of Hale in Crewe, Cheshire, and dean of women’s ministry in the Diocese of Chester, is by no means a token choice. Highly respected, she was one of eight ordained women elected as participant observers in the House of Bishops in November 2013. This arrangement was another sign of Archbishop Justin Welby’s serious intent to usher the Measure through the maze of General Synod’s convoluted processes and to consolidate it.
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