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How does the Church prepare women for full-time service? The basic requirements are selection, training in theology and the relevant professional expertise, and evidence of Christian commitment and life. On proof of these, a woman is given general accrediting for service after which she is eligible to work throughout the Church of England.
Selection
Candidates are required to attend a three-day residential centre organised by CWMC on lines similar to ACCM’s Selection Conferences. Josephine Butler College (for church social work) and the Church Army select their own candidates.
Training and Qualification
Training and qualification for the Inter-Diocesan Certificate of the CWMC (the basic qualification for women) is undertaken at one of the recognised Training Houses or Colleges and normally lasts three years. The Inter-Diocesan Certificate is given to those candidates who successfully complete their training and are recommended by their sponsoring diocese for its award.
Accrediting
The first known instance of a woman receiving the bishop’s licence is recorded in Durham, 6th May 1887. In 1932 the Central Council for Women’s Church Work expressed the hope that bishops would only license those who hold the Inter-Diocesan Certificate, and this is now common practice. These workers were regarded as having received the ‘recognition’ of the Church, but the Canon Law Commission proposed in 1947 that the term ‘commission’ be substituted for ‘recognition’ as being more generally understood. When Canon E.I ‘Of the Commissioning and Licensing of Women Workers’ (see Appendix p.68) is promulged, each of these workers will be commissioned as a Woman Worker of the Church at the outset of her ministry, and this commissioning will not be repeated. This act of commissioning is parallel to the admission of a Reader to his office and not to the ordaining of a deaconess.
Licensing follows commissioning and relates to each specific job. Thus a fresh licence is required for each new piece of work. Both commission and licence are given by the diocesan bishop, and convey the Church’s authority to speak or act in its name.
All Church Army sisters are admitted to the office of Sister-Evangelist by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or his commissary, when they are commissioned as officers by the Chief Secretary of the Church Army. Diocesan practice varies as to their licensing. Since every piece of work done by a sister is seen as the working out of her vocation as an evangelist, it seems appropriate that she should, whenever possible, receive church accrediting for it.
Deaconesses
Any woman desiring ordination as a deaconess must work for two years in some field of church work (parochial, diocesan or educational) before being selected for ordination. Normally, she then takes a course of preparation lasting one month at the Central Deaconess House, Hindhead. She is made deaconess by the bishop in the diocese where she is to serve, and receives her Letters of Orders. Subsequently she is licensed for each post she holds by the bishop, to whom she takes an oath of obedience and before whom she makes the declaration of assent.
Authorisation
An Authorisation may be given by a bishop to a woman who is serving the church but who is not eligible for his licence. There is much local variety of practice.
Post-Commissioning Training
In a number of dioceses, newly commissioned workers share with junior clergy in post-ordination training. Joint training at this period can be valuable, but care must be taken to meet the somewhat differing needs of the lay workers: not all parts of the course are necessarily relevant, and it is not always easy to be the only woman among a number of possibly much younger men. We were particularly interested in the new Church Army scheme for such training which may well prove of value in other areas of lay work.
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