A SENIOR church official, defending a village's refusal to appoint a woman priest has admitted the process has left the Church in a “very messy place”.
A SENIOR church official, defending a village's refusal to appoint a woman priest has admitted the process has left the Church in a “very messy place”.
Archdeacon of Suffolk, the Venerable Geoffrey Arrand said while he may or may not agree with the decision to veto the idea of a woman priest at the Holy Trinity Church in Barsham, he wholly defended the right to have that opinion, and that was the stand the Church of England had to take.
Through re-organisation there are plans to link the parish of Barsham-with Shipmeadow with that of Bungay.
Under the law brought in with the arrival of women priests in 1993 a clause was added that would give every parish the right to choose whether they wanted a woman priest or not. Because of the strength of feeling female priests could never be forced on any parish.
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