The Bishop of Waikato is to be inducted as an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College in Oxford tonight in what the Anglican Church in New Zealand describes as the highest form of recognition.
The Rt Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, who studied at the college for seven years up to 2005, is being recognised for her work in academia in the Anglican Church and being the first female bishop to have trained for the priesthood in the Church of England.
She said the recognition represented an acknowledgement of the important steps that have been undertaken to make gender equality possible across the whole of church life.
