Victoria Matthews

Victoria Matthews (born 1954) is Bishop of Christchurch in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. In 1994 she became the first woman ordained bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Education

Matthews was educated at Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, and graduated with a B.A.(Honours) degree from Trinity College, University of Toronto in 1976. She was the recipient of the North American Theological Fellowship from 1976 to 1979, and completed a M.Div. at Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School. She also holds a Th.M. from Trinity College, Toronto, which she completed in 1987.^[1]

Career

Matthews is considered to be a theological conservative and on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church.^[2]

Matthews became a deacon in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980. In 1992, she sat on the bishop's court that convicted Fr James Ferry of disobedience. She served as an educator and a parish priest until Feb 12, 1994, when she was ordained to the episcopate. From 1994 to 1997 she was Suffragan (Assistant) Bishop of Toronto.^[3] She became the first woman to be a bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.^[4]

Mathews began chairing the Primate’s Theological Commission in 1996^[3] and was reelected in 2004. She also chaired the Task Force on Alternate Episcopal Oversight.^[1]

She was elected Bishop of Edmonton in 1997, and held the position until her resignation in 2007.^[3]

She was bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto, Ontario, from January to April 2008.^[3] In February 2008, she was elected Bishop of Christchurch in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia,^[2] and she was enthroned on August 30, 2008.^[5][6]

Matthews' handling of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake damage to ChristChurch Cathedral earthquake recovery was criticised by a senior church member^[7] and was echoed by letters published in The Press.^[7]

References

External links

• Candidacy for Primacy in 2004