South Africa: Church Elects Woman Bishop

John Oliver/Diocese of Cape Town
Bishop-elect Margaret Vertue
4 October 2012
allAfrica.com

Cape Town — A South African woman has been elected as the second female Anglican bishop in Africa.

Canon Margaret Vertue, the senior priest in a diocese which includes most of the poorer suburbs of greater Cape Town, was elected bishop of the Diocese of False Bay at an elective assembly on Wednesday.

In July, a woman was elected to be Africa's first woman bishop in the deeply traditional society of Swaziland.

Canon Vertue was one of the two first woman priests to be ordained in Cape Town by Archbishop Desmond Tutu 20 years ago.

She, Revd Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya, bishop-elect of Swaziland, and other new bishops are scheduled to be consecrated by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, head of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, at services in the coming months.

This report has been edited since first published to make clear that the bishops will be consecrated at different services.

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