Anglican Women Concerned was the first Anglican feminist activist group in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

that was founded in Sydney in 1975 by

Colleen O'Reilly Colleen Anne O'Reilly (born 1949) is an Australian Anglican priest. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to religious education. O'Reilly has ...

and Zandra Wilson. It was the first group in Australia that advocated for the ordination of women in the Anglican Church.

History

Anglican Women Concerned arose from the

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

organisation,

Christian Women Concerned Christian Women Concerned was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded in 1968 by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. The organ ...

, which had been established in 1968.

had been actively involved in the ecumenical Commission on the Status of Women which was established by the

Australian Council of Churches The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) is an ecumenical organisation bringing together a number of Australia's Christian churches in dialogue and practical cooperation. The NCCA works in collaboration with state ecumenical councils ...

. Desiring something more distinctly Anglican in focus, O'Reilly and Zandra Wilson became the organisation's key founding members. Anglican Women Concerned was one of several Australian state-based groups that supported the ordination of women, which existed prior to the establishment of the

Movement for the Ordination of Women The Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) was the name used by organisations in England and Australia that campaigned for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion. England The decision in 1978 by ...

(MOW) in Sydney in 1983. Anglican Women Concerned was known for organising public protests outside important church assemblies, such as general and diocesan synods in the Sydney Chapter House. In 1977 the group organised a demonstration outside St Andrew's Cathedral during General Synod. An article about the protest appeared on the front page of the

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

References

{{authority control 1975 establishments in Australia Organisations based in Australia Religious organisations based in Australia Christian organisations based in Australia Organizations established in 1975 Religious organizations established in the 1970s