I’m celebrating the UK’s first female archbishop. I don’t care that she is in a civil partnership

Those who are opposing Cherry Vann’s appointment as the new Archbishop of Wales on the basis of her sexuality are conveniently forgetting that they once opposed the ordination of women altogether. Prof Helen King says their arguments are hypocritical and outdated

The Church in Wales now has a new Archbishop. Most Rev Cherry Vann was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1989, before women could be priests. In 1994, she was in the first cohort of women to be priested. Before her consecration as Bishop of Monmouth in 2020, she worked in parish and chaplaincy ministry as Area Dean and then Archdeacon in the Manchester diocese.

So far, so typical of the pattern of ministry of someone who goes on to be called to serve as a bishop and then an archbishop. By all accounts, her wide range of experience is enhanced by the many gifts she brings to this role; a deep faith, vision and care for individuals.