...is the Age's report on
the consecration of Bishop Barbara Darling, the second Australian woman bishop in the Anglican Church.
I especially enjoyed these three paragraphs:
At the start of the service, Canon Darling — renowned for her calm poise and gentle tone — wore purple, but after the oaths she retired to don the same ecclesiastical garb as the other bishops.
She returned for the laying on of hands, an ancient ceremony symbolising the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Then came the presentation of her new tools of the trade: a Bible (though she already has several), a shepherd's crook, a bishop's ring and cross, and cope (robe), mitre (bishop's tall hat) and stole (long scarf).
These garments arrived from Wimple's, the famous London ecclesiastical outfitter, on Monday and were partly funded by a gift of $8500 from Melbourne parishioners.First, I would think that Wimple's might be a chi-chi nun's habit outfitter, and suppose they meant
Wippell's, where bishops-to-be from all the world over come to admire purple birettas in glass boxes in the foyer.
Second, I am enormously heartened by the news that Bishop Darling actually owns a couple of Bibles and is not encountering one for the first time at her episcopal consecration. One would assume that possessing Bibles is something that most clergy would be likely to do. However, when you become a bishop and get another one to put on the shelf, perhaps it's a good idea to crack it open occasionally.
