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........

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