More women than men are ordained as Anglican priests in Brisbane, rectifying historic imbalance

More women than men in the progressive Anglican Diocese of Brisbane are being ordained as deacons and priests, completing a transformation that began in deep acrimony three decades ago with the inaugural intake of female clergy.

Reverend Doctor Ann Edwards, left, Reverend Doctor Margaret Wesley, Bishop Sarah Plowman and Reverend Lyn Kareta. Picture: Glenn Hunt

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

It happened so gradually hardly anyone noticed, but that doesn’t make the smashing of the stained-glass ceiling in Australia’s second largest church any less historic.

More women than men are being ordained as deacons and priests in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, completing a transformation that began amid deep acrimony three decades ago with the inaugural intake of female clergy.

This year, the count tipped majority female, entrenching the shift in the gender balance in the big, city-based catchment. Since 1992, 129 of those created deacon have been women – 50.2 per cent of the cohort – alongside 119 of the 231 priests appointed in that period, a 51.5 per cent share.

Sarah Plowman, the first woman to be consecrated as a homegrown Brisbane bishop in the sandstone edifice of St John’s Cathedral last year, questioned why holdout, traditionalist Anglican dioceses weren’t doing more to involve and promote women in the clergy. The Catholics might also take note.

Churches of every stripe needed all the help available to do God’s work in these testing times for organised religion, Bishop Plowman, 52, told The Australian.

“We women are beginning to catch up at last,” the former high school science teacher said.

“We had a long history where women weren’t able to engage in the full leadership within the church and finally we’re at a place where women can serve as deacons, priests, bishops in this diocese, and we’re seeing that ministry expressed as the full ministry of the body of Christ in this place.”

The enhanced role of women will be celebrated this weekend when Bishop Plowman joins other Anglican women of the cloth at the diocese’s general synod, a gathering of more than 500 church leaders drawn from thickly populated southeast Queensland.

The numbers tell only part of the story. At a catch-up with sister clergy at the cathedral on Friday – priests Ann Edwards, Margaret Wesley and Lyn Kareta – the talk was of how far women in the church had come.

And how far there was still to go.

As Dr Wesley pointed out, she had to move to Brisbane to be ordained as an Anglican priest in 2017 because this was not permitted in her home town of Sydney. The diocese there, a bastion of doctrinal conservatism, allows women to enter the clergy as deacons but rejects their elevation to priest or higher office.

Even in progressive Brisbane old attitudes persist, Dr Wesley said. “There are more women in the clergy, which is a very welcome thing, but there is still an expectation women will work part-time regardless of their actual situation,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons that, overall, there are more men in the ministry than women.”

Reverend Kaye Pitman.

Reverend Kareta, 52, of southside St Bartholomew’s, Mt Gravatt, spent 20 years in the corporate world as an HR manager before being ordained in 2023. She admits being a “little perplexed” over why gender remains an issue in the church, when it barely featured in her previous line of work.

“In the corporate space, the idea that you didn’t have men and women doing the same job didn’t come up at all,” said the married mother of two.

Ann Edwards, 49, rector of The Gap parish in Brisbane’s suburban northwest, was pleased the diocese was using all available talent – “the giftedness of our whole population” – because, Lord knew, “we need all hands on deck at this particular time”.

“Churches everywhere are experiencing difficulty. We have got lower numbers, financial pressures, all the trouble in the world that’s happening today. More than ever, things are unsettled across our society and we need the church to bring hope to people,” she said.

All four women are deeply conscious of the efforts of those who blazed the trail for them, Bishop Plowman especially. She was befriended and mentored by Kaye Pitman, one of the first Anglican women to be ordained in 1993, when the church was convulsed by internal opposition to the move. After all, none of the Apostles were female, the resisters argued.

Looking back, Reverend Pitman said: “They would point to biblical precedents and they would say that all of Jesus’s disciples were men. I … didn’t agree with them then, and I don’t agree with them now. They interpret the scriptures in their own way and they’re quite sure that they’re right.

“But I feel we’re doing the right thing here in Queensland. I think we’re following God’s way.”

At 89, she continues to be involved in the church, conducting services every first Sunday of the month at the Kenilworth chapel in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, north of Brisbane. Reverend Pitman was on hand to guide Bishop Plowman through her prayerful retreat prior to being consecrated last June, and preached at the instalment ceremony in St John’s, overseen by the black jeans-wearing Archbishop of Brisbane, Jeremy Greaves, 55.

Bishop Plowman said she would be forever grateful for her old friend’s support. “For me, personally, I just feel a deep sense of gratitude and a sense of being really fortunate to have watched and journeyed alongside some of the women who have laid the groundwork in this area. I’ve been a recipient of that and for me it’s just normal for men and women to share as equal partners in ordained ministry.”

Of the 169 active clergy in the Brisbane diocese today, 63 are women, 38 per cent of the peer group. Nationally, less than a quarter of Anglican clergy are female, studies show. In addition to Bishop Plowman, one of the three assistant bishops in Brisbane is a woman, four out of nine archdeacons are women and six out of 15 area deans are women.

Archbishop Greaves said the implications were not confined to the Anglican communion. “My experience is that the increase in women in leadership has brought fresh energy in all sorts of places, and new insight and different trust, and that the life of the church is enriched by women in leadership.

“And I know in the Roman Catholic Church there are many, many strong and able and articulate women who would be ready in a heartbeat to step into different leadership roles if things change there.”