As part of the Crossing the Threshold Conference, Bishop Geralyn Wolf, retired Bishop of Rhode Island, will become the first woman Anglican bishop to lead a service at Llandaff Cathedral. The public service is part of an event called Crossing The Threshold, held to mark the start of new legislation in Wales allowing women to be ordained as bishops.

She will be joined by another bishop from the United States – Bishop Gayle Harris, the Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts, who made history on Sunday by becoming the first woman Anglican bishop to preside at a service in the whole of Wales when she visited St Asaph Cathedral. For further information please click here

St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich have a Diocesan Celebration of Shared Ministry at the Cathedral on Thursday 4th. September at 7pm.

WATCH in England are so delighted that the Church in Wales is ready and willing to appoint female and male bishops. We trust that the Spirit will stir the Church to the appointment of a female bishop sooner rather than later.  We stand beside you in encouraging women to recognise their full calling in Christ, and urging the Church to recognise episcopal calling irrespective of gender. Have a wonderful day.

A reminder that this event is a day conference to mark the opening of the Episcopate to women in the Church in Wales. It will be held at St Michael’s College, 54 Cardiff Road, Cardiff CF5 2YJ on 4th September 2014 (Registration 9.00am)

The day will end with a Eucharist at 7.45pm in Llandaff Cathedral, president, The Rt Revd Geralyn Wolf (Former Bishop of Rhode Island)

Mandy Marshall, the co- director of Restored will deliver training for the Diocese of Salisbury on 24th September. Restored is an international Christian alliance working to transform relationships and end violence against women. If you are interested in your church, or group of churches receiving training then please contact Restored’s  UK Training Manager, Josephine Wakeling. Email [email protected]

WATCH was delighted to support and be part of the Women in Leadership event held at St Paul’s Cathedral on 16th July 2014. It was especially good timing coming just two days after Synod finally voted YES to women bishops! Our stall was in prime position as people came into St Paul’s for the event and virtually everyone took a WATCH badge and other merchandise. It was really wonderful to see so many of our logos everywhere. We had many “congratulations” and “about times”!

It was a wonderful event and the links produced by the St Paul’s Institute are listed below. Please do click and have a look.

Cranky, Beautiful Faith and the City of God

St Paul’s Cathedral

Thursday, 28 August 2014 from 6.30 to 8.00pm

Free

Sara Miles and Nadia Bolz-Weber are two of the most exciting, prophetic voices in 21st century Christianity. Both find God in the grit of real life, on the streets of the cities they live in, and in the joy and pain of the people they serve and love. They will reflect on their own unlikely experiences of coming to faith, and how we can live the gospel in the new world of the 21st century.

Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of the House for All Sinners and All Saints, a mission church in Denver, Colorado. A former stand-up comic and a leading voice in the Emerging Church movement in America, she is also a New York Times bestselling author. Her latest book is Cranky, Beautiful Faith and she blogs atsarcasticlutheran.com

Sara Miles is the Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, and the founder of The Food Pantry. A former reporter, she is the author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion and Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead. Her latest book is City of God: Faith in the Streets.

Please book a free ticket online now at crankybeautifulfaith.eventbrite.co.uk

West Yorkshire & the Dales Women and the Church (WYAD WATCH) would like to invite you to our inaugural event 11am – 2 pm on Saturday 6 September 2014 at Christ the King, Stocks Bank Road, Mirfield, WF14 9QT.   At the event we will exploring ways in which WYAD WATCH  can continue to support women’s ministry locally, nationally and globally.  Guest speaker: Miranda Threlfall-Holmes.   We look forward to seeing your there.  For more details contact Bernadette Hegarty: 01423 540 066 or Maggie McLean on 01924 493277.

A day conference to mark the opening of the Episcopate to women in the Church in Wales.

St Michael’s College, 54 Cardiff Road, Cardiff CF5 2YJ 4th September 2014 (Registration 9.00am)

The day will end with a Eucharist at 7.45pm in Llandaff Cathedral, president, The Rt Revd Geralyn Wolf (Former Bishop of Rhode Island)

For further information and booking form, please see file attached.

By Lucy Davis

There are days when words cease, when the only possible response to what we see is to stand and weep for joy. Concelebrating at the Eucharist in one of England’s ancient cathedrals in the company of a female Bishop was for me one of those times.

Saturday saw the annual pilgrimage of St Alban, a spectacle of carnival costumes and giant puppets which brings the city to a standstill. And this year, at the rear of the procession stretching almost the length of the High street, in the midst of several mitres, a female figure, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. I was expecting to be excited; I was taken aback by just how moved I was.

At the Eucharist, packed with pilgrims from all over the country, all over the world, the Most Revd Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori preached about heroes, true heroes. Those who, like Alban, spend themselves for Christ. She spoke about passion, of finding our passion and living it. Then we came to Christ’s altar and celebrated, priests and bishops, male and female, ministering with and for God’s people. The really moving thing was that it didn’t feel peculiar to be in the presence of a female bishop. To see her there, in mitre and purple, was as ordinary and extraordinary as seeing anyone who is living out their vocation with God. Bishop Katharine, a trailblazer for women Bishops and women Primates, wears her own iconic status lightly, yet understands the impact she has by simply being a woman.

The Presiding Bishop made time in a packed day to accept an invitation from the St Albans branch of WATCH to meet with members and women in lay and ordained ministry in the Diocese. Christina Rees chaired a Q and A for us, as Bishop Katharine generously shared something of her experience and ministry. She spoke of the highs and lows of being a Bishop, of the experience of being the only female Primate, of how we might encourage a higher proportion of women in senior posts in the church, of how far we have travelled and how far we still have to go. Bishop Katharine spoke of the Synod vote in July, of how we must hope, and whatever the outcome not be destabilised; God is still God.

In her sermon, Bishop Katharine talked about heroes, and I think I have found a new one. A woman who has been prepared to take on headship, vulnerably exposing herself to all that has meant. A woman who is wise, passionate and measured. A Bishop who defines herself as a bridge builder. We give thanks to God for raising up Presiding Bishop Katharine, and pray that it might not be long before we see another female bishop in an ancient English Cathedral, an inheritor of the legacy of all who have paved the way.

The Southwark Feminist Theology Group are holding the above event on the 8th July 2014. The speaker, Dr Rachel Starr  is a tutor at the Queens Foundation and spent three years in Buenos Aires completing doctoral studies and volunteering with the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights, which trains women to challenge violence in the home and in public. Her doctoral research uses women’s experiences of domestic violence to interrogate Christian theologies of marriage. For further information about the event, please email and RSVP to southwark.feminist.[email protected]