Scottish Church Votes Against Having First Woman Bishop

The woman vying to become Britain's first female Anglican Bishop lost her bid in Saturday's elections by the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

The Rev. Alison Peden, a 57-year-old rector of Holy Trinity Church in Stirling and one of three candidates seeking the position of bishop of the Diocese of Scotland, lost the election to the Very Rev. Gregor Duncan, Rector of St Ninian's Church in Pollokshields.

The other unsuccessful candidate was the Venerable Dr. John Applegate, Course Principal of the Southern North West Training Partnership in the Anglican Diocese of Manchester.

"I am deeply honoured to be given this responsibility by the electors of the Diocese and am committed wholly to this new office," said Duncan, who is also the dean of Glasgow and Galloway.

Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth, who chaired the electoral synod, said that gender had not played a role in deciding the elections.

"In any profession when women are admitted inevitably it takes a while for them to acquire the experience and to work their way through the ranks or the levels of authority," the bishop told the BBC.

"What we are seeing now for the first time is women ... expecting and deserving to be taken seriously at this level and I'm sure it will come about before too long."

The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is the most liberal of the Anglican provinces in Britain, passed a resolution in 2003 allowing women bishops, but is yet to consecrate its first female clergy to the office of bishop.

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