Preachers, Prophets and Heretics

As the Anglican Church tied itself in legal and theological knots over the ordination of women in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Australian public watched on in amazement. The spectacle spilled out of church synods into ecclesiastical tribunals and civil courts, and made media headlines. Twenty years have passed since women were first ordained as priests in 1992. Since then women have become much more visible in the church hierarchy except in the powerful Diocese of Sydney, the only metropolitan diocese that doesnt allow women priests. More than 500 more women have been ordained as priests and they havent stopped there, some have also gone on to become bishops. This first book to document and analyse the debate includes chapters from key players and observers, including Peter Carnley, the Archbishop of Perth who broke the impasse by ordaining women before national legislation was passed; religion producer and broadcaster Rachel Kohn, and the Very Reverend Dr Jane Shaw, an internationally recognised author and commentator. In 2012 the Anglican Church in most places in Australia looks and sounds very different from 1992, but are these hard-won changes fundamental, or only cosmetic?