Position of Canon (female) - which denomination?

wavehopper1

I learn that a particular woman holds the position of Canon.
Does that mean this person must be of a Protestant denomination?
This person is in an African country (don't know if that makes any difference).

I tried doing a google search, but keep finding stuff on canon law.

brian_t

Canon (priest)

Peregrinus

wavehopper1 wrote: »

I learn that a particular woman holds the position of Canon.
Does that mean this person must be of a Protestant denomination?
This person is in an African country (don't know if that makes any difference).

I tried doing a google search, but keep finding stuff on canon law.

She's mostly likely Anglican.

One of the senses of "canon" is "a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter". (A cathedral traditionally has a chapter, which is a group of clergy resonsible for sacramental ministry in the Cathedral.) So you don't have canons in churches that don't have bishop and cathedrals, which rules out a lot of Protestant denominations. And she's not a Catholic, obviously, because canons are priests, and the Catholic church doesn't ordain women.

But Anglicans have bishops, and cathedrals, and cathedral chapters, and canons who belong to them, and the canons can be women. And its a relatively senior position. While, formally, the cathedral chapter is responsible for ministry in the Cathedral, for a long time now it has been the practice that the Cathedral chapter is composed of relatively senior parish clergy from different parts of the diocese. They take it in turns to preach in the Cathedral (so if the chapter has, say, 15 members then once every 15 weeks each member is rostered to preach in the Cathedral) but their main function is often to act as a conduit for information to flow from the parishes to the bishop, and vice versa, and in some places they act as a kind of council to the bishop. In some Anglican churches they also play a significant role in choosing a new bishop, when the diocese falls vacant.

Nekarsulm

Very interesting explanation Peregrinus.

wavehopper1

Peregrinus wrote: »

She's mostly likely Anglican.

One of the senses of "canon" is "a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter". (A cathedral traditionally has a chapter, which is a group of clergy resonsible for sacramental ministry in the Cathedral.) So you don't have canons in churches that don't have bishop and cathedrals, which rules out a lot of Protestant denominations. And she's not a Catholic, obviously, because canons are priests, and the Catholic church doesn't ordain women.

But Anglicans have bishops, and cathedrals, and cathedral chapters, and canons who belong to them, and the canons can be women. And its a relatively senior position. While, formally, the cathedral chapter is responsible for ministry in the Cathedral, for a long time now it has been the practice that the Cathedral chapter is composed of relatively senior parish clergy from different parts of the diocese. They take it in turns to preach in the Cathedral (so if the chapter has, say, 15 members then once every 15 weeks each member is rostered to preach in the Cathedral) but their main function is often to act as a conduit for information to flow from the parishes to the bishop, and vice versa, and in some places they act as a kind of council to the bishop. In some Anglican churches they also play a significant role in choosing a new bishop, when the diocese falls vacant.

Thank you so much for that detailed explanation.