A woman's place?

The Anglican church is in a tizzy about whether God would approve of female bishops. The church is no longer a male club. A woman who believes she has a calling is no longer told, Hamlet-like, 'Get thee to a nunnery.' Yet its problems over the treatment of women attached to the church are more urgent than whether they should wear the mitre. Pardon me for mentioning my new novel, Beyond Reason (Solidus Press). Florence, a vicar's wife, is thinking of getting a paid job. Such a revolutionary idea is a blow to the running of a vicar's household. True, some parishes are run by bachelors, but church people prefer there to be a wife to be lured into the unpaid womanly activities in a parish; to be eternally on hand, at the end of the phone or behind the front door, an unpaid round-the-clock servant in cardigan and pearls. Some wives are happy with this disgraceful system, or if they aren't they are kept going by their faith. Florence, though, has no faith.