PRESS RELEASE

The Archbishop's Council of the Open Episcopal Church, meeting in London on Tuesday, November 22nd has elected unanimously Revd Helen Hamilton M.A. to be the first woman bishop to be consecrated in Scotland to serve as the bishop of the Diocese of Scotland for the Open Episcopal Church. The Open Episcopal Church consecrated the first woman bishop in England in 2003, Bishop Professor Elizabeth Stuart, the Senior Pro-Vice- Chancellor at the University of Winchester. The Church then consecrated the first woman bishop for Wales in 2007, Bishop Shelley Harstad-Smith and now will consecrate Bishop Elect Hamilton for Scotland in 2012. Bishop Elect Hamilton, a qualified teacher with post graduate degrees from London and Cambridge Universities, worked as a prison governor and inspector before becoming an Anglican religious sister for 12 years. She served as the warden of the Cathedral and the College on the Isle of Cumbrae for three years before serving as a locum minister for the Church of Scotland. She was ordained a priest at St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall in 2010. Clergy and laity from the Open Episcopal Church will travel to Scotland for the consecration and will hold their annual church Congress on the Isle of Luing. Meanwhile the third Anglican priest to leave the Anglican Church to join the Open Episcopal Church will be ordained (sub-conditione) in Norfolk on December 11th. Further details concerning the consecration will follow. Contact numbers: The Press Office: 0208 304 7605 or 07767 687711 Bishop Elect Hamilton: 01852 314007 www.openepiscopalchurch.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Episcopal_Church