She became the third woman to be made a bishop following the Reverend Canon Alison White, the new Bishop of Hull, and the Reverend Libby Lane, the Bishop of Stockport. The clasp prompted enthusiastic clapping from members, in scenes described by a few pundits as “unseen before”.
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Her formal enthronement as bishop of the diocese, home to 600,000 people and 205 parishes, took place at Gloucester Cathedral in September. “So help me God”.
“There may be women who’d be happy with “right reverend mother in God”, but that doesn’t sit comfortably with me”.
“Recently the Church has been concentrating so much on whether we should have women bishops we took our eye off the ball about God”.
“God is not to be seen as male”.
Normally a bishop could wait up to 10 years for a place and Bishop Rachel told Premier she was “daunted” by how fast the process was. Asked how her approach would be different to male colleagues, she said: ” What I bring is myself.
The scriptures may or may not support the ordination of women in ever more important posts in the Church of England, but there is nothing in the Bible, apart from a few traditionally patriarchal language, that defines the Almighty as a male. “As a speech therapist, I was concerned about enabling people to have a voice”.
When asked what she hoped to contribute, she said: “I bring who I am, and part of that is that I am a women”.
“First and foremost, I come here fully being myself and, as it happens, I’m a woman”.
“Generalisations are always a very risky thing to do but I think women are very good at doing connections, I think they’re very good at seeing the big picture”. “There are people throughout the House of Lords of all faiths, that’s very important to state that”.
Speaking ahead of becoming the first woman to join the Lords Spiritual, the Bishop of Gloucester said “ideally” a woman would lead the Church of England in the future, according to Western Daily Press.
The bishop told the newspaper: ‘In the creation narratives, we’re told that God created human beings in God’s likeness, and then it goes on to talk about male and female.
Treweek then added: “I am not in the business of wanting to offend anyone, but I do want to gently challenge people”. “But am I keen that the Lords Spiritual keep their voice here, then yes, I most definitely am”.
Bishop Treweek said that, although her seat in the House of Lords carried “a lot of expectation”, her intention was to listen before taking the risk of stepping in to debate.
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“Women make up more than a quarter of the membership of the House of Lords and the Leaders of both the Government and Opposition in the Lords are women. Her work will mean she can bring relevant experience to bear on numerous issues considered in the Lords”.
