Women in the Church with Kate Fogarty Sally Douglas Claire Victory

 Click here for the video recording.

Sally Douglas, Kate Fogarty and Claire Victory, with their qualifications and experience, are well placed to provide an insider critique of the church they love, particularly of the status of women. 

Being actively engaged in the Church, they are keenly aware of both the opportunities available for supporting life-giving spiritualities and the effects of discrimination. We will all benefit from their sharing of their experience-grounded perspectives on women in the Church.

A broad range of issues will be discussed, including the issues that women faced in the early Church, as well as presenting ideas about the sort of Church they would like to see today. A Church that accepts women as equal members, that is humble, welcomes all as members of the Body of Christ, resists self-aggrandisement, plus much more!

The aspiration for equality goes back to the beginning. Will we see it in this generation?

In the meantime, women are increasingly the energy and drivers of church evolution in this change of era.

Kate Fogarty 

Kate is currently the Director of Catholic Education for the Diocese of Sandhurst in Victoria. Her previous roles have included 9 years as Principal of Assumption College Kilmore, and St Joseph’s College Echuca. She has qualifications in Education, Theology and Management and strongly believes that all students, wherever they are, deserve the best education possible.

Sally Douglas

Sally is a Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies within the University of Divinity, Melbourne, a Uniting Church Minister, a theologian, and an author. She engages with New Testament texts, the work of early church authors, and with Womanist and Feminist readings, as she attends to minimised sources and contemporary questions of theology. Her recent publications include Rewilding Prayer: God Beyond Gender, Faith Beyond Formulas (2025); Jesus Sophia: Returning to Woman Wisdom in the Bible, Practice and Prayer (2023); and Newborn Babies and Nursing Jesus (1 Peter 2.2-3): The Petrine Metaphor’s Disruption of Patriarchal Renderings of God and the Child – Biblical Theology Bulletin.

Claire Victory
Claire is an employment lawyer working in industrial relations roles, acting for employers, workers, insurers and union members. She was the first female National President of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Australia and is currently a Regional Presidents of SVdP in South Australia.