Today in History

1990 World's first female Anglican bishop appointed

Dr Penny Jamieson's rise through church ranks was rapid. Women had first been ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1977. In 1985 Jamieson was ordained and appointed to a Wellington parish, before being elected by her peers to the see of Dunedin five years later.

Born in England, she married New Zealander Ian Jamieson and moved with him to Wellington. There she worked with the Wellington Inner City Mission while writing her doctoral thesis. It was during this time that she developed a vocation to the priesthood.

Her ordination in June 1990 did not meet with universal approval. Bishop Whakahuihui Vercoe refused to attend. He did not believe that from a cultural perspective it was the right time to have a female bishop. When he was appointed as Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand in 2004 he held the same opinion.

Bishop Jamieson herself spoke of her appointment as giving ‘enormous encouragement' to women in all churches and in society at large. She felt that ‘the glass ceiling' had been broken. At her investiture for the Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004, though, she expressed disappointment that no other women had yet followed in her footsteps.

The Right Reverend Dr Penny Jamieson retired in June 2004. In August 2008 The Right Reverend Victoria Matthews, a Canadian bishop, became the second woman bishop in New Zealand, when she was elected Bishop of Christchurch.

Image: Rt Rev Dr Penny Jamieson (Monumental stories)