A VICAR is hoping more women enter the church as she reflected on 25 years since women won the right to be ordained.

On November 11, 1992, the General Synod, the legislative body of the Church of England, voted in favour of women becoming priests.

Canon Fleur Green has been Vicar at St Peter’s Church in Darwen since 2012 and watched the result from her university common room.

She said: “When I think of that day, I’m transported back to the common room at university.

“I remember watching the result on the television and being amazed that it had gone through.

“I was just delighted and over the moon, it was just such a huge thing for the church.”

Rev Green was in the second wave of women ordained 1994, but as a member of the movement for the ordination of women, she had campaigned tirelessly for the opportunity to follow her calling.

She said: “I was 16 when I first felt called to the profession, I felt that it was what God wanted me to do.

“The vote meant I was going to be able to do what God was calling me to do.”

Rev Green is also advisor for women’s ministry in Blackburn, a role she hopes will soon be unnecessary.

She said: "Every diocese has someone like me to ensure there is a network to provide pastoral support for women in the diocese.

“I hope to see the position disappear as women become more commonplace in the church.”

In 2015, The Right Reverend Libby Lane, who completed her curacy at St James’s Church in Blackburn, was the first woman to be made a Bishop.

The Rev Green said she still encounters some who disagree with her position but women taking up more senior roles in the church is helping people become more accepting.

She said: “There is a lot more acceptance than there once was.

“There are people who do not agree with it and I get on well with all of them.

“It’s not about what we disagree on, it’s about how it is worked out between us and how we can be good witnesses to the gospel.

“Some people are still surprised to see a female vicar but I get fewer double takes than I once did.

“There are more women in senior roles and that is helping to increase acceptance.”