Leadership Insight 72 | The British Army

This article is thought provoking and I can’t help but draw comparisons with the Church! #NotEqualYet

www.army.mod.uk/support-and-...

Sharing encouragements at the WATCH trustees’ meeting today. So many to be grateful for:
the #ArchbishopofCanterbury ‘s appointment;
the response to our Transparency campaign;
so many new members joining; & yet more joining our mailing list; the Newcastle Roadshow; new trustees; etc.

#NotEqualYet

‘Establish a Culture of Trust’ was the headline.
Trust in the #womenbishops settlement went years ago, because @churchofengland.org leaders turned a blind eye to the lack of compliance with the agreed terms.

Now there’s a generation of male clergy who know they can get away with it.

#NotEqualYet

I wish the @churchtimes.bsky.social was better informed editorially, about the unaddressed problems & lack of compliance with the terms of 2014 settlement. I hoped that would improve over the last year or so. But Katie Stock’s article -even the headline & subheading were uninformed.
#NotEqualYet

Letter in the @churchtimes.bsky.social this week, in response to Rev Katie Stock’s article last week.
#NotEqualYet

#NotEqualYet
Yes, the being ‘lovely’, ‘charming’, etc, towards women/female priests has been one of the tools which are used for keeping women down, & keeping people calm about it.
It’s one of the #MaleHeadship #Complementarian #Traditionalist cloaking mechanisms.
Enough.
Time to wake up to it.

The #NotEqualYet Roadshow is coming up at Newcastle Cathedral!

#NotEqualYet: is this really a conversation we still need to be having? — WATCH “Do we really need to still be talking about this stuff here? We’ve got a female bishop, two female archdeacons, two female canons at the cathedral. Is this still a conversation we need to be having?”...

A blog by me for @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social about why it matters that women are still #NotEqualYet in the Church of England, and why this isn't just a 'women's issue' but an essential matter for the whole church.
www.womenandthechurch.org/blog/b2jbirm...

Inspired and encouraged by the @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social AGM this morning - celebrating what has been achieved and gearing up for what is still to do.

Now looking forward to the #NotEqualYet Roadshow, coming to Newcastle in a couple of weeks: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/not-equal-...

We’re really looking forward to our AGM this morning: so much encouragement & progress to work forward.

#NotEqualYet but we will get there!

Not Equal Yet Roadshow - Newcastle Come and learn more about how and why women are still #NotEqualYet in the Church of England - and what we can do to change that.

Friends in the North East! A group of us have put together this event: a chance to understand more about the ways in which women are still #NotEqualYet in the Church of England, and what we can do about it. Please book and share!
@watch-notequalyet.bsky.social

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1752974677...

Image of a Church Times ad from St John’s Hensingham, saying they only want a man as Associate Vicar.

Afters years of requests & now pressure from us & others, some @churchofengland.org churches are being more open & honest with clergy applicants & churchgoers over their PCC’s policy of excluding women from ministry:
From @churchtimes.bsky.social 5.9.25.
#TransparencyAboutPCCResolutions #NotEqualYet

#NotEqualYet indeed.
How to exist without threatening male power? 🤔

2. It’s all part of the bigger picture of church leaders continuing to condone the information being kept under the radar from the churchgoers, who are at the same time asked pay £ towards their @churchofengland.org church’s ministry.
#NotEqualYet @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social

This is an important point.
All…are equal.
But some Chichester archdeacons more equal than others?
#NotEqualYet

Thanks Stephanie.
At some point, enough @churchofengland.org people will complain about it for the treatment of our women not to be fob-offable & ignorable any longer.
If only for fear of reputational-overspill.
#NotEqualYet
#MenFlourishing

#NotEqualYet
@churchofengland.org @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social

Observation:
No WATCH trustee, committee member, or - one imagines - member or supporter, wants to have to spend any more of their precious time advocating for women simply to be treated fairly.
But @churchofengland.org leadership is not making it happen.

So. Onwards.

#AnglicanWomen #NotEqualYet

7. Other fun facts:

- Chichester doesn’t have a single full time female archdeacon

- the senior staff include 3 members of the Society, in a team of 6

- 80% of the FTE priests are men

- the diocese is apparently struggling to recruit priests

#NotEqualYet
#OneSidedFlourishing

5. The appointer(s) omitted Emma’s title as a priest in their formal announcement. But not his.

They appointed her when she is already doing a full time role, & an additional role, to a further role.
Is it unpaid & unsupported/unresourced too?

#OneSidedFlourishing

#NotEqualYet

1. Re-🧵
Latest news from Chichester diocese is something you couldn’t make up.
They’ve appointed:

- a male, FT, stipendiary, Archdeacon
&
- a female, already FT priest/Rural Dean, (unremunerated for this?), ‘Associate Archdeacon’ (wait for it, wait for it…) for Diversity & Inclusion

#NotEqualYet

8. Fun facts:

- Chichester doesn’t have a single full time female archdeacon

- the senior staff include 3 members of the Society in a team of 6

- 80% of the FTE priests are men

- the diocese is struggling to recruit priests

#NotEqualYet
#OneSidedFlourishing

5. Next, they appointed her, when she is already doing a full time role, & an additional role, to a further role, while not paying her anything extra (we understand).

#OneSidedFlourishing

#NotEqualYet

Image shows latest available data (several years old) on the percentage of stipendiary clergy who are women in each diocese. Chichester Diocese is at the bottom of the list: over 80% of its paid clergy are men.

The @churchofengland.org hasn’t produced/funded #MinistryStatistics post 2022. Why?

So the Church provides no current information on our progress to gender balance in ministry.

The latest data shows Chichester’s gender imbalance.

Not #MutualFlourishing
but #OneSidedFlourishing

#NotEqualYet

Another comment, from Rosalind, on Thinking Anglicans, in response to @churchofengland.org bishops’ latest meeting.

#NotEqualYet @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social

Screenshot of response to bishops’ statement and proposal.

#NotEqualYet
Reaction on ThinkingAnglicans to @churchofengland.org bishops’ latest meeting outcome.

Is it now time for a national consultation & then a debate in #GeneralSynod?

A start wd be requiring honestly-phrased,
genuinely-communicative
#TransparencyAboutPCCResolutions on church websites

Screenshot of page from the Thinking Anglicans site, which describes the House of Bishops’ meeting discussion on the treatment of women in the CofE.

CofE bishops are again saying they’ll commission some work to seek improvements to how the #WomenBishops settlement works.
We’ve had 10 yrs of meetings/pieces of work:
the recommendations haven’t been implemented &
concerns not resolved.There’s no confidence left.
#NotEqualYet
@churchofengland.org

Bishop Sarah Mullally on Poetry, Faith, and the Dilemma of Resilience - Southwark Cathedral The Dean speaks to the Bishop of London about poetry.

Moving @southwarkcathedral.bsky.social podcast: Bishop Sarah Mullally talking with Mark Oakley @deansouthwark.bsky.social about her chosen poem & her life, including the effect of being treated badly simply for being a women bishop.

#NotEqualYet

cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/about-us/new...

A clarification on WATCH’s position regarding the Five Guiding Principles — WATCH Since WATCH’s Not Equal Yet Conference in March, there has been a lot of commentary in the media by those in favour of keeping legal discrimination against women; commentary that  frankly, if it ...

“There has been a lot of commentary in the media by those in favour of keeping legal discrimination against women." WE MUST END MISOGYNY IN OUR CHURCH AND UPLIFT WOMEN! @watch-notequalyet.bsky.social #ChurchofEngland #NotEqualYet www.womenandthechurch.org/blog/a-clari...

This could be relevant for #AnglicanWomen.

#NotEqualYet