First Aussie female bishop consecrated

Australia's first woman bishop was consecrated in Perth on Thursday night amid lingering controversy over her appointment.

Archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy, 51, became Bishop Kaye Goldsworthy at a ceremony conducted by the Australian Anglican primate, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, in Perth's St George's Cathedral.

Twenty-one Anglican bishops from Australia and New Zealand were among a congregation of more than 800 to show their support for last month's controversial appointment, which was closely followed by the appointment of Victorian vicar Canon Barbara Darling as the nation's second woman bishop.

Not present at the ceremony were opponents of the ordination of women, including the head of the Sydney diocese, Archbishop Peter Jensen, and his brother Phillip Jensen, dean of Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral.

While the Sydney diocese is recognised as Australia's dominant opponent of the ordination of women, the Bishop of Northwest Australia, David Mulready, was also among notable absentees from the service.

Bishop Mulready says he will not permit Bishop Goldsworthy to officiate in his diocese.

The president of the Sydney-based Anglican Church League, Dr Mark Thomson, has said the Perth decision "adds a new level of difficulty to the relationship between the various dioceses in Australia".

Delivering the sermon at the service, Dr Aspinall made only brief reference to the controversy surrounding Bishop Goldsworthy's appointment.

"The bishop is a teacher of the faith. This doesn't mean unthinkingly regurgitating formulae from the past," he said.

"Guarding and teaching the faith means bringing the depth of the church's inheritance to bear on today's questions.

"This can lead to the disclosure of aspects of Christian truth that have been forgotten or gone unexplored. The church is a place where things can happen for the first time."

One of the presenters of the crosier at Bishop Goldsworthy's consecration was the former Anglican primate, Archbishop Peter Carnley, who ordained Archdeacon Goldsworthy as one of Australia's first women priests in the same cathedral in 1992.

Now retired for two years, Archbishop Carnley was succeeded as head of the Perth diocese by Archbishop Roger Herft, who appointed Bishop Goldsworthy and consecrated that appointment.

Archbishop Herft and his diocesan council came to the unanimous decision following an agreement last month between Australia's Anglican bishops on a protocol to handle opponents of women bishops.

Under the protocol, parishes that cannot in good conscience recognise the ministry of a woman bishop will be offered the services of a male bishop.

This followed the affirmation by the church's legal body last year that it would not breach church law to appoint a woman bishop.

Archbishop Herft has said Bishop Goldsworthy's previous experience as a school chaplain, canon of the cathedral, parish priest and archdeacon meant she was "one of the best qualified priests to take on this role".

He said women bishops were currently serving in the United States, Canada and New Zealand and that "Australia has been a while catching up".

The mother of twin boys, who has been married to husband Ben for 20 years, has said it was unlikely she would feel slighted by parishes not accepting her ministry, having first felt a call to serve the church at the age of 16 and faced criticism over the years.

"I've travelled a path where there's always been someone or some group that doesn't agree or doesn't want to receive your ministry, so I won't feel slighted," she told AAP last month.

"I'm always sorry that we have such differences and I wish it were different, but ... I want everybody to see that the ministry of women is to be valued and celebrated."