Bp. Catherine Roskam Interview

The Right Rev. Catherine Roskam -- the fourth woman ever to be consecrated -- discusses the rise of female leadership in the Anglican Communion
By EMILY FLITTER
July 9, 2008

A day after the Church of England's governing body voted to allow women to be consecrated as bishops, the Right Rev. Catherine Roskam was headed to the Lambeth Conference, the periodic convention of bishops from the Anglican Communion that has, since 1948, occurred once a decade.

Since the last Lambeth Conference in 1998, a gay bishop has been ordained along with a handful of women, one of whom was elected in 2006 to the highest position of the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Bishop Roskam, who holds the title of Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of New York -- she oversees Episcopal congregations in the Hudson-Valley suburbs north of New York City -- and is the fourth woman ever to be consecrated, reflected on the rise of female leadership in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion. Edited excerpts from her interview with the Wall Street Journal follow. Interview