New Anglican bishop ‘will play by the rules’

 — May 16, 200816 mai 2008

[Don Retson, edmontonjournal.com] Edmonton’s new Anglican bishop won’t be bending the rules in the local diocese for gay couples wishing to exchange marital vows in church.

“Basically, I’m a play-by-the-rules girl,” the Rt. Rev. Jane Alexander said.

“At the present time the national church has said we’re going to talk about this and we will vote again and look at this in 2010. And so that’s what we’ll do.”

At All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral last Sunday, Alexander was consecrated and installed as the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Edmonton.

Alexander succeeds the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews, currently residing in Toronto, who is the designate-bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is the first time in the history of the church that two women bishops have served back to back.

At certain points during the service, Alexander was moved to tears as elements of the past and present came together amid the pomp and ceremony. But the event was as spiritually uplifting for her as it was emotionally draining.

“There was just an incredible feeling of the Spirit in the cathedral,” she said, adding she felt so supported by the 700 people who packed the cathedral and spilled into the hall.

The Alexander family moved here from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1980. Husband Tim is a radiologist at University Hospital. The couple have four children.

Alexander breaks the traditional mould of church leaders.

Her father was so anti-church that he forbade young Jane from attending religious classes at her school in England. It was while singing hymns and oratorios in choirs and school assemblies that Alexander said she heard “the first whisperings of God.”

She was baptized at 25 along with her infant son Mark. At 37, while working as a professor of educational psychology at the University of Alberta, Alexander felt the call of ministry.

After theological studies, ordination in 2001 and serving several local parishes, Alexander in 2006 was inducted as rector at All Saints and installed as dean of the diocese.

On March 8, Alexander was elected on the third ballot as spiritual leader of the roughly 77,000 Anglicans in the Diocese of Edmonton.

She prides herself as a good listener and being very collegial, skills surely needed now more than ever considering the rift over the same-sex issue. More than a dozen parishes have voted in recent months to split from the church over the ongoing controversy.

Only 49, Alexander could potentially serve as bishop until mandatory retirement at 70.

Posted: May 16, 2008 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=457
Categories: NewsIn this article: Anglican
Transmis : 16 mai 2008 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=457
Catégorie : NewsDans cet article : Anglican


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