MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Church of England appoints first female bishop

Revd Libby Lane was chosen to become the Church of England's first female bishop.

A married woman, whose husband is also a priest, will be consecrated next month. Prime Minister Cameron speaks of “an important day for equality”.

 Reverend Libby Lane has been appointed as the first female bishop for the Church of England, just a month after a historic change to canon law., the BBC reported on Wednesday. She will become the new Bishop of Stockport, a post that has been vacant since May.

Lane was ordained a deacon in 1993 and a priest in 1994, serving her curacy in Blackburn, Lancashire. Since 2010 she has also held the role of Dean of Women in Ministry for the diocese of Chester, where she has also been the vicar at St Peter's Hale and St Elizabeth's Ashley since 2007. She will be consecrated at a ceremony at York Minster on January 26.

In his twitter account, British Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated Revd Lane “on becoming the first woman bishop in the Church. An historic appointment and important day for equality.” For her part, Lane admitted that “I'm conscious that other women will be looking to me”.

The general synod voted in favour of female bishops in July and formally adopted legislation on November 17. This new appointment will end centuries of male leadership of the Church and comes 20 years after women became priests.

Legislation to fast track women bishops into the House Of Lords will be introduced to Parliament on Thursday. But Lane will not be able to enter the House of Lords, as the post she is taking up is a junior or suffragan appointment within the Diocese of Chester, the BBC's religious correspondent Caroline Wyatt said. As opposed to a suffragan bishop, a diocesan bishop has his own cathedral and may sit in the House of Lords.

The newly-appointed bishop and her husband, who is also a priest, were one of the first married couples in the Church of England to be ordained together.