wfn.org | British Methodist clergywoman appointed to House of Lords

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 16, 1998        Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story. 

By Kathleen LaCamera*

LONDON -- British Methodist Kathleen Richardson has become the first
clergywoman to be appointed to the House of Lords.

The June 12 announcement of her appointment as a "life peer" came during
the annual Queen's Birthday Honours. A life peerage -- usually given to
those such as retired archbishops in the Church of England, ex-prime
ministers and former ambassadors -- will entitle Richardson to sit as a
voting member of  Parliament's House of Lords and be addressed as
"baroness."  

Richardson, 60, is no stranger to being a "first woman." Ordained in
1980, she was the British Methodist Church's first woman district
chairman (roughly equivalent to a United Methodist bishop) and its first
woman president. She serves as one of the three top coordinating
secretaries for the denomination and also is the first woman moderator
of the ecumenical body, the Free Churches' Council. The council
represents 19 mainline Christian denominations in England and Wales that
fall outside the official jurisdiction of the British government and the
queen.  

The awards are bestowed by the queen, based on recommendations from
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisers. In a statement from
Downing Street, officials said this year's list reflects Blair's belief
in recognizing achievement, self-sacrifice, generosity and initiative.  

Richardson said she was honored and delighted to accept the appointment.
She made it clear that she felt it had less to do with her own personal
achievement and more to do with her leadership across denominational
lines.  

It was in her role as senior representative for the council that she was
recognized with one of four life peerages given out this year. Others
receiving appointments included Sir Colin Marsh Marshall, chairman of
British Airways, Sir William Herbert Laming, chief inspector of British
Social Services, and Sir Terence Burns, permanent secretary to Her
Majesty's Treasury.
Membership in the House of Lords as a life peer, like appointments to
the U.S. Supreme Court, lasts throughout the lifetime of the appointee.

The Rev. Rosemary Waklin, a retired British Methodist clergywoman and
prison chaplain, called Richardson's appointment "highly significant,"
especially in light of the "fringe status given non-conformist
traditions like Methodism." According to Waklin, Methodism is treated
very much as a "poor relation" to the establishment Church of England.  

"Kathleen is a lady of considerable stature and has ploughed a lonely
furrow for a long time," Waklin said. "She's been out there on a limb,
and I think it's terrific that she's been appointed to the House of
Lords."  
 
Richardson predicted that the concerns of people in the two groups she
represents will shape the issues she takes up in the House of Lords.

"Particular interests which I can envisage being important for me will
be those surrounding education, family life, foreign policy and
immigration," she said. "The Free Churches make an enormous impact on
the life of the community, and I will be glad to be able to represent
some of these concerns in the House of Lords."

Richardson, along with others receiving special honors, will be
officially recognized in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace at a date soon
to be announced.

# # #

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.

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