TORONTO (RNS/ENI) The Anglican Communion has appointed a female Canadian priest to a key ecumenical post, even though some Anglican provinces and many ecumenical partner churches do not allow women’s ordination.

The Rev. Alyson Barnett Cowan, an Anglican priest who lives in Toronto, was named director for Unity, Faith and Order at the Anglican Communion Office in London. She has been director of Faith, Worship and Ministry for the Anglican Church of Canada since 1995.

Some Anglicans see the appointment as a bold move because the ordination of women is still not accepted by many Christian denominations and a handful of Anglican provinces.

Barnett Cowan has served on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations and as a consultant to the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission. She has also been a member of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission of the World Council of Churches.

“Of course ordained women have been working ecumenically for years — the WCC includes churches which do and which don’t (ordain women), and it can be a sensitive question, especially over leading worship,” Barnett Cowan told Ecumenical News International.

“But usually ecumenical partners recognize the right for churches to appoint according to their own tradition. And in this case, I’m functioning in a staff role, so I am hopeful that arrangements can be made that won’t cause offense.”

The position is new for the 77 million-member communion. The communion’s former ecumenical director, Gregory Cameron, was recently elected an Anglican bishop in Wales.