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Belle bells in Bow as Church of England celebrates first female diocesan bishop
Ancient ecclesiastical court sits to confirm the election of a woman as bishop of an English diocese for the first time
The historic Bow Bells of the City of London rang out with a more feminine tone to mark the moment a woman took charge of a Church of England diocese for the first time.
In a ceremony tracing its origins to the 4th Century AD the Venerable Rachel Treweek, formerly the Archdeacon of Hackney, in east London, was pronounced Bishop of Gloucester.
Although three other female clerics have been appointed as suffragan, or junior, bishops since the change in canon law came into force late last year, she is the first woman in the history of the Church of England to hold a diocesan bishopric.
The great Bow Bells at St Mary-le-Bow Church in Cheapside
Under new laws fast-tracked through Parliament before the General Election, she will also be the first woman to sit as a bishops in the House of Lords, when she takes up her place on the red benches in the autumn.
Cheers and tears of celebration from hundreds of well-wishers merged with legal formalities at a formal sitting of the Arches’ Court of Canterbury, an ancient ecclesiastical court, at the Church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London, its historic home, to formally confirm the new bishop’s election.
In a departure from tradition, an all-female team of ringers took over the bells to celebrate the occasion.
Although the sitting marked the moment the new bishop legally took up office, she is yet to be formally ordained into the episcopate at Canterbury and installed at Gloucester Cathedral later this year.
Letters patent from the Queen were read out ordering the appointment and the new bishop was publicly welcomed into her role by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby.
During a formal part of the hearing, the Vicar General, Timothy Briden, explained that – unusually – there had been one formal objection to the election. It came from the Rev Paul Williamson, the London cleric who interrupted the consecration of the Rt Rev Libby Lane as Bishop of Stockport, at York earlier this year.
Mr Briden said that there had had to be a special preliminary hearing at which the objection to the consecration of women was dismissed on legal grounds – a step which delayed the process of the appointment.
There was laugher as the Archbishop, welcomed the former Archdeacon to her new ministry remarking: “In the name the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Rachel, Bishop of Gloucester … you took your time.”