Women feel ‘battered and bruised’ by church says Lillington vicar

The Rev Charlotte Gale told her congregation that women feel “battered and bruised and undermined in their ministry” after the recent blocking vote at the General Synod.

She said she continues to be “devastated” by the decision, which will have a “serious and longlasting effect on the mission and status of our church”.

The move to allow women Bishops was backed by Bishops and clergy in the General Synod - but lay members were four votes short of a two-thirds majority.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby - who was formerly the rector at St James’ church in Southam and St Michaels’ and All Saints’ in Ufton - said the vote was a “grim day for the church”.

Rev Gale told her congregations on Sunday they should learn more about the issue, sign petitions, write to church leaders, and pray for women clergy.

She criticised the “loud voice” gained by the small minority of opponents in the Synod, most of whom think that women should not run local churches at all.

On the effect of the vote, she said: “All of us, day in, day out, are working really hard to try and persuade people that the Church of England is a positive and relevant institution, that the church is a place worth coming to and worth having in a community.

“We do this in an environment of mainly indifference and sometimes suspicion about our motives. But we carry on. Preaching God’s love, trying to build a church where everyone is equally valued and welcomed, regardless of age, race, background or gender. It feels to me as if that task has just been made a whole lot harder.”

She also told her congregation at St Mary Magdalene’s church in Lillington how disheartening the news had been, as she did her day’s work in her parish.

On that one day, she said she had taken a service, visited a grieving widow, taught schoolchildren, helped individual parishioners with personal worries and led an adult group in the evening.