Female clerics rally to support ‘gifted’ bishop
A BISHOP who has faced calls to quit a new post over his opposition to women priests has been publicly supported by 36 female clergy who say he “created a real buzz” in his old diocese.
Philip North, 50, is currently Bishop of Burnley, but becomes Bishop of Sheffield later this year. That makes him the first bishop opposed to the ordination of women to be appointed to a senior post since the Church allowed women to become bishops in November 2014.
In 2012, the Bishop withdrew from a post as Bishop of Whitby amid controversy about his views on women clergy. He continues to be a member of a conservative group called “The Society”, which opposes female ordination and refuses to recognise any priests ordained by women bishops.
According to its rules, “Priests of the Society” can only be “male priests, ordained by a bishop in the male historic succession”.
Last week, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Very Rev Martyn Percy, invited Bishop North to decline the Sheffield appointment, saying it would “feel like a step backwards”.
Sheffield churchgoers have also signed a letter to Bishop North expressing “concern and disappointment” at his appointment.
However, the signatories of another letter, addressed to the Church Times, have said Bishop North had gone “the extra mile to affirm and share in the ministry of women clergy”. The letter was co-ordinated by the Rev Canon Fleur Green, an advisor for women’s ministry in the Blackburn diocese.
Three female bishops also publicly backed his appointment, saying female clergy would find him a “thoughtful and caring pastor”.
The Bishop of Repton, the Rt Rev Jan McFarlane, said: “Philip is a gifted bishop with a real heart for the less privileged ... someone who is willing to speak out and give a voice to the voiceless.”
Bishop North was popular in Burnley for reaching out to those in the city’s more deprived areas. He has criticised the Church for being elitist and too concerned with sexuality at the expense of tackling social inequality.
Last year, he said the Church was too dominated by the middle classes to understand the concerns that led to Brexit. He also criticised it for neglecting deprived areas in a speech to the 2016 General Synod.