Canberra could choose Australia’s first female diocesan

http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/canberra-could-choose-australias-first-female-diocesan-cen-91208-p-6/#comment-4761

[CEN - Conger] 16 Sep 2008--Canberra may be the first Australian diocese to elect a woman as diocesan bishop. The Archdeacon of Canberra, the Ven. Sarah Macneil is one of five nominees to succeed the Rt. Rev. George Browning, and if elected, would become the first female Australian diocesan bishop.

Last September the Australian Church’s appellate tribunal, ruling on a point of grammar, held that women clergy could be consecrated as diocesan bishops. In May Barbara Darling and Kay Goldsworthy were consecrated as suffragan bishops of Melbourne and Perth, however the Oct 31 election for a diocesan bishop of Canberra will be the first time a woman priest has stood for election in Australia.

Archdeacon Macneil has served as rector of All Saints Ainslie in the diocese since 2004. She first moved to Canberra from Tasmania in 1976 to join Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, and served in the country’s diplomatic corps before entering the ministry.