Ordination of Women and Ecumenism

Ordination of Women and Ecumenism

Archbishop Neill served (when Bishop of Tuam) as Chairman of the General Synod Committee on the Ordination of Women from 1988 to 1991 and proposed the Bill to the 1990 General Synod that changed the Church’s constitution to allow for the ordination of women. He also played a prominent role at the Lambeth Conference in 1988 where he was chairman of the Group on Women in the Episcopate and proposed all the approved resolutions on this issue.

A keen ecumenist he is a widely respected figure in ecumenical circles and is well known internationally for his work in this area. He served two terms of seven years as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. He was the first Anglican Co-Chairman of the Porvoo Contact Group linking the British and Irish Anglican Churches with Lutheran Churches in the Nordic and Baltic countries. From 1990 – 1994 he was president of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland and more recently served as president of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. In 1993 he was co-leader of a British/Irish Church delegation to Yugoslavia.

In Ireland he has played a major role on the ecumenical scene for many years and is much sought after as a commentator on Irish ecumenical relations. He was co-founder and chairman of the Church of Ireland/Methodist Joint Theological Working Party.

A highly regarded administrator, Archbishop Neill has served on many central committees of the Church of Ireland covering issues such as liturgical reform, education, communications, Christian unity and synodical structures. He also served for almost a quarter of a century on the Select Committee for the Remarriage of Divorced Persons and was its chair at the time that this committee completed its task. From 1988 – 1995 he was secretary to the House of Bishops.

Archbishop Neill also has much experience in the area of education. While Bishop of Tuam he was a member of the Governing Body of University College Galway, while as Bishop of Cashel he served as Chairman of Kilkenny College, the largest boarding school in Ireland. Since becoming Archbishop he serves as a Governor of several schools, Patron of three Comprehensive Schools and a Fellow of St. Columba’s College. He has also been a member of the Academic Council of the Irish School of Ecumenics. In the early seventies he was a lecturer in Old Testament at the Divinity Hostel and in the early eighties he lectured in Pastoral Liturgy at the Theological College and in the School of Theology TCD.

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Early Life, Education and Early Ministry
Ministry as Archbishop of Dublin to Date