ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the development of the British Christian women's movement of the 1970s and 1980s, locating the movement within its wider context of post-1960s cultural change in society and the British Christian churches. 1978 was a significant year in the Anglican campaign for the ordination of women, in anticipation of the November debate on the issue in the Church of England Synod, for the first time in over three years. The launch of both the Christian Feminist Newsletter and the Christian Women's Information and Resources (CWIRES) project signalled the beginnings of an expansion of a 'second-wave' Christian women's network, from its pre-CWIRES origins within radical Christianity. From the mid-1970s, the Student Christian Movement Women's Project stimulated 'second-wave' Christian feminism in Oxford and London. The Community of Women and Men in the Church programme introduced a vocabulary of community, partnership and complementarity between women and men in the church, which was current during the pre-CWIRES period.
