Britain on Wednesday got its first female bishop in the 500-year history of Church of England, exactly a month after historic changes were made to the law to end centuries of male domination in the church.
48-year-old Reverend libby lane will become the new Bishop of Stockport, a post in the north of England that has been vacant since May. lane has been the vicar at St Peter’s Hale and St Elizabeth’s Ashley in Cheshire since April 2007. She expressed her promotion “an unexpected joy,” and lead a prayer for the victims of the Taliban school massacre in Pakistan as her first act as bishop.
“It is an unexpected joy for me to be here today,” lane said after being named in Stockport, a town outside Manchester in northwest England. “It’s a remarkable day for me and I realise an historic day for the church. I’m honoured and thankful to be called to serve as the next bishop of Stockport and excited, though not a little daunted, to be trusted with such a ministry. “I’m very conscious of those recognised and unrecognised who have prayed and worked and struggled for this moment.”