Last week, the National Association of Diocesan Advisers in Women’s Ministry (NADAWM) held its annual conference. Representing the Diocese of Manchester was The Revd Jenni Beaumont, Bishop’s Advisor for Women’s Ministry, Vice Chair of NADAWM and Vicar of Tonge, Rhodes and Alkrington. Reflecting on the gathering, Jenni shares the following report:
"Each diocese in the Church of England is encouraged to appoint a diocesan (or bishop’s) advisor in Women’s Ministry, and each year those advisors gather as The National Association of Diocesan Advisors in Women’s Ministry (NADAWM). NADAWM aims to be a resource to the Church of England, it acts as an advocate for and as a representative of women from every diocese in the Church of England. NADAWM is funded entirely by diocesan donation. Each year we come together to collaborate on and work together to fulfil our purpose to equip, evaluate and engage.
"It has been a challenging year for women in the Church of England, while the headlines have celebrated the 30th anniversary of the ordination of women, 2024 also marked the ending of some national streams of work. Transformations was set up in 2011 to develop women’s ordained ministry in the Church of England, the group had been a casualty of Covid, it last reported on its work in 2019, but it was formally wound up in 2024. You can read the last report here.
"The theme of this year’s conference was His-story, Her-story, God’s-story, included within that was the stories we tell about ourselves and to ourselves. To help us in the telling of these stories, we were joined by visitors from the House of Bishop’s standing commission on the Five Guiding Principles, members of the Archbishops’ Advisers for Appointments and Vocations, author Catherine Fox, and Rev’d Christina Rees MBE who spoke on the Li-Tim Oi Foundation. The theme had emerged over 2024 in response to some questions that had been asked around senior appointments in the Church of England and, the response that emerged from that questioning was: why are women not applying for senior appointments? What is missing from diocesan structures or national structures that is not encouraging women to go forward to apply for senior positions?
"While this work continues, there are also some fun activities planned for 2025. Our near neighbours in the Diocese of Leeds are crowdfunding to commission a song written by O’Hooley and Tidow (the same duo whose song was used as the theme tune for Gentleman Jack) to celebrate the pioneering role of women priests in the Church of England. The suggested song will honour Revd Margaret Mabbs, who campaigned for women to be ordained from 1942, and was amongst the first to be ordained in 1994 at the age of 70. She retired from ministry aged 92. It will also include Jemima Prasadam, mother of the current Bishop of Huddersfield, +Smitha Prasadam, who was the first South Asian woman to be ordained in the CofE, plus others who continue to minister today. You can find further information here.
"Please do have a look at the work of NADAWM, including the Clergy Babies audit conducted by former DAWM of Durham Rev’d Chantal Noppen. The work carried out in this area has seen an improvement in provision for maternity and paternity provision across the Church of England. Thankfully, that report is already out of date in many dioceses."
If there is an area of work that you would like to see NADAWM engage with, please do get in touch rev.jennibeaumont@gmail.com (Vice Chair of NADAWM).
Celebrating 30 Years of Women Priests
To mark the 30th anniversary of the ordination of women as priests, we created a short film featuring some of the first women to be ordained in Manchester; those serving as priests today; and the men who have supported them. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, we encourage you to do so: