George Conger reported on 3 February: First woman bishop for GAFCON province
The Episcopal Church of South Sudan has consecrated its first female bishop. Anglican Ink has learned that on 31 December 2016, the Most Rev Daniel Deng Bul, primate of South Sudan and Archbishop of Juba consecrated the Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Awut Ngor as assistant bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek.
Archbishop Deng, who retired last month, upon the election of his successor, the Most Rev. Justin told Radio Good News: “It was in my dream to ordain a woman as bishop in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan before I leave”.
Rumors of a female bishop in South Sudan arose early last year, but queries to the provincial secretary and Archbishop Deng were not answered. The website of the Anglican Consultative Council does not show an assistant bishop for Rumbek and no mention of Bishop Awut’s consecration has been made on the Anglican Communion News Service. However, group photos taken at last month’s meeting of the South Sudan House of Bishops showed one bishop in a skirt holding a handbag. Subsequent queries identified her as Bishop Elizabeth.
Bishop Elizabeth becomes the third African female bishop, following the Rt. Rev. Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya, who was elected bishop of the Diocese of Swaziland on 18 July 2012 and ordained and installed on 10 November 2012. Her appointment was closely followed by the election, on 12 October 2012 of Margaret Vertue as bishop of the Diocese of False Bay. She was consecrated and installed on 19 January 2013.
Bishop Elizabeth also becomes the first female GAFCON bishop. The GAFCON primates had asked the Churches of Uganda and Kenya to hold back from electing women bishops until GAFCON was of one mind on the issue. With the election of Bishop Elizabeth, pressure will mount for the East African churches to follow suit
GAFCON has issued: A Statement on the Consecration of a Female Bishop in South Sudan
From the beginning of the Gafcon movement there have been a variety of understandings among our members on the question of consecrating women to the episcopate. Recognising that this issue poses a threat to the unity we prize, the Primates agreed in 2014 to do what was within their power to affect a voluntary moratorium on the consecration of women to the episcopate. They then set up the Task Force on Women in the Episcopate, chaired by Bishop Samson Mwaluda which presented a report to the 2017 Gafcon Primates Council.
In discussion at this Council, the Primate of South Sudan, Archbishop Deng Bul (who had not been present when the moratorium was agreed) shared with us that his personal decision to consecrate a female bishop was an extraordinary action taken in the midst of civil unrest in a part of his country where most of the men were engaged in armed conflict.
The Gafcon Primates chose to not allow this anomaly to change the course followed since 2014. The Task Force was asked to continue to provide theological resources, and the Provinces were urged to continue the study of Scripture, to consult with one another and to pray that God will lead us to a common mind. The voluntary moratorium remained in place.
In accordance with these decisions, the Task Forces’ Report, which can be read here, is now being discussed at the regional level in advance of the April Gafcon Primates Council and the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem this June. Our hope is that the newly elected Primate of South Sudan will join us in these discussions as we seek to find a common mind, looking to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Peter Jensen, General Secretary
February 2018
Does the Church of Nigeria allow Women to become Bishops? I don’t know. Anyway Great! Perhaps the cracks are beginning to appear in Gafcon. I don’t mean to be rude about them, but the fact that they’ve got the word gaff in their title does reflect what the organisation is. Anyway great news for South Sudan.
Oh, come on, Peter Jensen.
Don’t hold back.
Do tell us all what GAFCON thinks the “faith once delivered to the saints” holds on this issue!
😉
The Catholic Radio Network reported on this consecration on Jan. 2, 2017. Many are now reporting that the consecration was “secret”, but CNR somehow got the story shortly after the event.
http://catholicradionetwork.org/?q=node/22683
Knock in the eye for GAFCON secretary, jensen.
I trust Bishop Elizabeth will be invited to Jerusalem this June to receive a standing ovation from all GAFCON representatives.
There are a number of issues here. Firstly, the Churches of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Sudan (and now both Sudan and South Sudan) made early decisions to ordain women as an act of faithfulness to scripture. Earlier than the CofE. The rise to senior positions was slow and slowed further by the rising influence of Western conservatives especially in Uganda. Kenya had an advocate in Ester Mombo who got women onto higher degrees and so influence. In Sudan the bishops in that region were forced out of their dioceses with death threats. A woman bishop was the only possibility. Do… Read more »
Part of me would like to rejoice at seeing GAFCON hoist by their own petard but ultimately I just have sadness that they are following the well-trodden path of churches that try to enforce agreement where there is not consensus – division after division after division. Where I can rejoice is in the boldness of Archbishop Justin Deng. A step taken in faith, like the consecration of Bishop Elizabeth, may be a catalyst for change. As Phil Groves suggests I will pray for her.
This is extraordinary news and glad to see the Anglican Communion is still capable of surprises in an over-connected internet age when we assume everything everyone does is instantly reported.
Bishop Elizabeth is therefore the 57th woman to become a bishop in the Anglican Communion, and the forthcoming consecrations of Anne Dyer (Aberdeen and Orkney, Scotland), Marinez Santos Bassotto (Amazon, Brazil) and Sonia Roulston (Newcastle, Australia) will take the total number to 70 by May this year.
I know it’s petty snarking, but it is a little hard to take seriously people who want to give the impression of being intellectual giants capable of the deep theological insights for our times, but who also struggle with basic English. You put moratoriums in effect, not into affect. Apostrophes denoting possession by singular entities go before the “s”, but if you’re struggling with English you might get confused if it’s a singular entity containing multiple people (“the Task Forces’ Report”). Similarly, “a variety of understandings” is singular (one variety, multiple understandings, the clue being in the singular “a”) and… Read more »
“Sloppy writing reflects sloppy thinking, and reveals the authors as not being willing to do the work to back up their ideas.”
It doesn’t. I have worked with people whose English is grammatically precise, but whose understanding of what to write was poor. I have had a boss who pointedly never spent time checking for typos and mistakes on the basis that in the time he spent doing that, he could write a second piece with considerable intellectual input instead.
IO, I agree with your grammatical points, just not with your conclusion. Irritating as I find such mistakes, I am no longer surprised by finding them anywhere. I see them regularly in the Times and the Daily Telegraph. I see or hear them daily on the BBC. I used to proof-read history and theology doctoral theses for some pocket money, and would find this sort of thing regularly. My colleagues at (expensive, well-regarded) school (even in the English dept) regularly produce these sort of mistakes in reports for parents. Worse still, most of the parents wouldn’t notice. As a 6th… Read more »
Interested Observer: as a former copy editor, I have to disagree with you. Several of the usages you cite are open to disagreement, even among people educated in England (see the weekly Times column ‘The Pedant’.. GAFCON contains people educated in a number of countries, including those where English isn’t the first language. Usages differ. In any case, a large number of people with conditions like dyslexia are highly intelligent – their struggles with spelling, syntax and grammar don’t negate the depth and breadth of their thinking. As Phil rightly says, the priority here is to pray for Bp. Elizabeth.… Read more »
In his Apologia for the current controversy in South Sudan, the former archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen (GAFCON Sec.) speaks of the charism of Unity. With this prospect already in doubt because of the Province of South Sudan’s ordination of a female bishop, Jensen’s plans for an alternative ‘Anglican Communion – based on the puritanical solidarity of the GAFCON leadership – seems already in danger of falling into further schismatic severance. Intentional schism only leads to further schism – as witness the ACNA problems about women bishops.
I’m down with Interested Observer’s comments about the quality of writing in material produced by GAFCON. I’m including to believe it shows contempt not only for the language but for those consuming such material.
OTOH, I consider it on a par with the quality of theological penetration and analysis with which GAFCON leadership reads Scripture and presumes to tell the rest of us what it all *really* means.
Christopher Rees, I don’t think that the Church of Nigeria even allows ordination of women tothe priesthood.
GAFCON’s North American affiliate ACNA is on the verge of breaking apart over the issue of women’s ordination; their own task force presented a study which neither side was satisfied with. It looks like the fissure may involve more than ACNA.
The bigger question is whether movements whose formation is essentially anti-something, and whose common cause is that opposition to one particular practice or issue, can long endure once the members realize they have different views on many other issues.
Exactly, Daniel Berry. They don’t care about getting it right, because they assume their audience won’t know any better.
Jim Pratt. Thank you for saying about the Church of Nigeria. I agree with you about Gafcon.
From the description of circumstances, it sounds like Bishop Elizabeth has been ordained Bishop in a context comparable to that in which Florence Li Tim Oi was ordained priest. We will see if it takes as long for other Global South churches (yes, I know: that’s broader than GAFCON; but many are still culturally much more open to men than women) to see Bishop Elizabeth as within the norm as it took the entire Communion to see Li Tim Oi as within the norm.
“it sounds like Bishop Elizabeth has been ordained Bishop in a context comparable to that in which Florence Li Tim Oi was ordained priest.”
Or indeed Ludmila Javorovà in the Roman communion.
Geoff McL, I was not aware of Ludmila Javarova. Thank you.
Thank you for all of your comments. It is part of encouragement to learn more about how to carryout the great commission where we are call to make the discipleship in the whole World. And no matter the challenges,but at-least to reach people of God and preach the Good News of Salvation. I give thanks to God for His calling for the Mission of Bishop as shepherd for God’s flock.Here in South Sudan our focus is to preach the Gospel of Jesus and that is our prayer for South Sudanese to have real peace and our people to live in… Read more »