Women were ordained in the Church of England for the first time 30 years ago. And yet, men still outnumber women as incumbents (the senior priest in a parish) by more than two to one in the Church of England, according to statistics published for the General Synod and reported in the Church Times. Only 30.4% of incumbents are women and in some dioceses – London for example – the figure is below 20%.
The statistics include a breakdown by gender of all 6715 full-time clergy, of whom 32% are women. Perhaps not surprisingly, of the 2808 self-supporting clergy, women constitute 52.5%. Of 7103 self-supporting non-parochial clergy with Permission to Officiate, 29% are women.
In total, women make up one third (33.5%) of all stipendiary (paid) clergy, a figure which has increased from 28% in 2016.
The figures were published in response to questions at the General Synod by Dr Felicity Cooke, a lay canon of Ely Cathedral and former vice-chair of Women and the Church (WATCH), an organisation founded in 1996 to promote gender justice, equality and inclusion in the Church of England.
Here in our Chaplaincy, we are very typical. We are 6 clergy, 2 of whom are women. We have one incumbent (male) and 5 clergy with Permission to Officiate, 2 of whom are women.
But things might be changing. Apparently figures for ordinands who began their training in September 2023 are very different: 206 (58%) were women, and 149 were men.
Read the full story here.
Learn more about WATCH here.
Picture above: The Salinas clergy team – gender equality!