Anglican women renew push for ordination
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Sydney's Anglican diocese refuses to ordain female priests (Keith Sutherland)
Images of female priests were projected on to the walls of St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral in Sydney last night, after advocates of women's ordination were banned from meeting in the cathedral's square.
The Sydney Movement For The Ordination Of Women wanted to mark its 25th anniversary by meeting in the square of Australia's oldest cathedral, but says it was banned by the cathedral chapter and the Dean Phillip Jensen.
Instead, it projected pictures of some of Australia's 450 female Anglican priests on to the cathedral's sandstone walls.
But none of the women lead churches in the city's diocese, because it refuses to ordain female priests.
The group's convener, Patricia Brennan, says the diocese has systematically suppressed debate on the issue, but the group has vowed to again push it to the top of the church's agenda.
She says 50 women have left Sydney to be ordained in other Anglican dioceses in the past 16 years.
