Elizabeth May sees hope in the rise of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury

The election of the first woman to serve as the Archbishop of Canterbury, heading the global community of Anglicans, is a historic event. Bishop of London Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullally has certainly broken through a number of stained glass ceilings! No matter what the field, women in leadership face additional hurdles, but as the first woman mayor of any large Canadian city, former mayor of Ottawa Charlotte Whitton, famously said, “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury is to Anglicans what the Pope is to the global community of Roman Catholics, without the assertion of infallibility. While women are still not allowed to be priests in the largest Christian branch of organized religion — Roman Catholicism — would women as heads of their churches be more likely to be progressive?

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I am fortunate to have known two of the women who have served as moderators of The United Church of Canada – both the late and miraculous Very Rev. Lois Wilson and (a strong “green”) and a dear friend, Mardi Tindal. And while not knowing them well, more recently, Very Rev. Carmen Lansdowne and now Rt. Rev. Kimberly Heath continue to be voices for peace and justice and the protection of sacred Creation.

At a time when declaring oneself as a follower of Christ is likely to invite skepticism, if not outright hostility, I persist in doing so. While a U.S. politician cannot hope to be elected without loud proclamations of belief in “OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST” (read in a southern accent), outside some distinct and relatively small geographical Bible belts, a Canadian politician gets no such advantage.

As the late NDP MP Rev. Bill Blaikie once said on the CBC Radio program Tapestry, we need to be clear, that while the so-called “Christian Right” gets media attention, there is also a Christian Left. We, who identify as being on the left of the political spectrum, pull back from the non-inclusive interpretation of faith. We seek to be inclusive of all religions, faiths and non-faiths and in doing so, we cede the field of faith to those who, with all the good will and love I can muster toward them, seem not to be familiar with the core of Christ’s message – love all. Clearly Donald Trump is not a person with even the vaguest familiarity with Christian faith, declaring “I hate my enemies” as he seems determined to break all 10 Commandments.

The election of a woman is a message. So many non-Christians assume that one cannot be a feminist, defend women’s reproductive rights, and still be a Christian, but some of those assumptions are shaken when Christians, willing to be political, speak up. Many non-Christians were cheering the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, when she called for newly inaugurated U.S. President Trump to show compassion toward the marginalized groups he was menacing. In her homily at his inauguration mass, she was brave as he, and especially his vice president, glowered. Budde continued to speak truth to power. She has held the position since 2011, and like her fellow Anglican — our new Archbishop of Canterbury — Budde is the first woman to serve in that vaunted role.

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As a climate activist and Anglican, one of my most electrifying moments was when the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, spoke at the 2009 Copenhagen climate meeting and said, “to spread lies about climate is to spread lies about God and is blasphemy.” Amen.

So wherever this message finds you, at home, at coffee hour after church or decorating the hall for the Christmas sale, please take a moment and consider what a radical Christian Left could do to right wrongs, protect Mother Earth and call out the world’s billionaires and rapacious bullies. What if?

I live by Ephesians 3:20, giving me the strength to believe and affirm that miracles happen. If we are trapped in a world where only what is possible can be realized, we are in a very dangerous place, living on the edge of doom. We must believe in and accomplish the impossible. A woman Archbishop of Canterbury? Quite impossible!

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Elizabeth May is the Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and the leader of the Green Party of Canada.