It’s time to show some reverence, Reverend

Published: 17 February, 2011
by JOHN GULLIVER

COULD the Bishop of Edmonton – he is the bishop for the Camden area – ever be a woman?   

At present, the incumbent, the Reverend Peter Wheatley, is very much a man – and one, apparently, who is not too keen on the appointment of women bishops. Nor, it is believed, are one or two clergy in the borough.

But, understandably, the Reverend Marjorie Brown of St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, likes the idea of women bishops. The Revd Brown, of course, broke the mould more than two years ago to become St Mary’s first woman vicar.

Entering the debate over women bishops, the Revd Brown makes it clear in St Mary’s monthly magazine which side she is on.

At present, the Catholic church has created a refuge called an “Ordinariate” for disaffected Anglicans – for those who cannot stand the “prospect of women bishops,” she writes.

So far, five bishops have switched and entered the “Ordinariate”.

But the Revd Brown intends to stay put.  

“I can assure anyone who enquires that I am quite happy to remain a priest in the Church of England,” she writes.

Though she admits this question is sometimes put to her by parishioners – albeit with a tongue in the cheek.