English priest shadows women bishops for a job she can’t have — yet

[hrmjustin]

Adelle M. Banks

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Rev. Sue Pinnington is on a five-week mission to compile a job description for a post she’s currently not able to have: bishop.

During a recent stay in the nation’s capital, the English priest shadowed Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the first woman elected as the top leader of the Diocese of Washington. Outside a subway station, the two women imposed ashes on commuters for Ash Wednesday. Two days later, they heard the Dalai Lama at the Washington National Cathedral.

Both women said it was most important for Budde to show Pinnington the “bread and butter work” of a bishop, even though Pinnington’s Church of England does not allow women to serve as bishops — at least not yet.

“The Church of England is about to have women bishops in the next 18 months to two years, and we don’t have any clear models of how a female bishop might look,” said Pinnington, 47, the leader of St. Michael and All Angels, a parish in Houghton-le-Spring that has existed for more than 1,000 years.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/03/27/english-priest-shadows-women-bishops-job-cant-yet/