Archbishop of Wales sounds a resounding blast for women in the church

Wales’ Archbishop, the Most Reverend Dr Barry Morgan, turned 16th century Presbyterian leader, John Knox’s diatribe* against the ‘monstrous regiment of women’ well and truly on its head in St David’s Cathedral.

The occasion was the Commissioning Service of the Mothers' Union Province of Wales and St David’s Diocese officers.
In his eloquent address, the Archbishop pulled no punches in his effort to bring home to women the importance of their role in the Church.

He began with a graphic description of the diversity of family life in today’s Wales and went on to describe the role of women in the Church as most often supportive and frequently subservient.

Using current statistics across Wales and in each Diocese, he made an impassioned plea for women to take their place in the governance of the Church in Wales.

He described sayings that ‘women are over-represented and under-authorised’ as having some foundation but refuted absolutely the dogma that ‘subordination [of women] is in the creative order of things’.

He quoted Galatians 3:26 which pronounces that ‘in Him you are all one’.
The Archbishop’s important, unequivocal message to the many Mothers' Union members and friends present in the Cathedral was that the Church needs to look at how it uses all the talents of its members and he encouraged women to see and embrace their role in the Church’s governance.

Mothers' Union senior executive officers installed at the Cathedral during the service included were:
Mrs Ann Gill – Pan-Wales Provincial President
Rev Canon Bryan Witt - Pan-Wales Provincial Chaplain
Mrs Brenda Evans – St David’s Diocesan President 

* Knox, John, ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’, pamphlet (1558).