Sydney's Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen, was initially reluctant to appoint his wife to the new women's ministry, according to the ministry's new team leader, Archdeacon Narelle Jarrett.
Ms Jarrett said Dr Jensen approved the appointment of Christine Jensen only after reconsideration, and then only on the condition she was not paid for her ministry.
"I've known Christine since the 1970s, and we're good friends," Ms Jarrett said. "I think she has outstanding gifts, she's an astute theological thinker and has valuable contacts with clergy wives."
But a spokeswoman for the archbishop said Dr Jensen had not indicated any reservations he might have over his wife's appointment to the ministry.
The archbishop was locked in synod standing committee meetings late into the night. On the agenda was a proposal to overturn a synod ordinance passed during the reign of Dr Jensen's predecessor, Harry Goodhew, which required the Sydney archbishop to retire from office at the age of 65. If raised to 70, Dr Jensen, 59, will remain in office until 2013.
Last night's meeting deferred a decision on the proposal. Instead, the meeting promptly appointed a new bishop to its ranks, Rev Ivan Yin Lee, 46, who will take over from Bishop Brian King as Bishop of Western Sydney in February. In doing so, he will become the only serving Anglican bishop of Chinese ethnicity in Australia.
Yesterday morning, Dr Jensen defended himself on ABC Radio against allegations of nepotism in the appointments of his wife and brother, Phillip Jensen, the new Dean of Sydney.
"Not if you know what the word nepotism means, which means providing ecclesiastical preferment for money and so forth and so on," he said.
Michael Jensen, Dr Jensen's son, was appointed chaplain of St Andrew's Cathedral before him becoming archbishop, he added.
"We must not allow the fact that people have the same surname to prevent them from doing the job that we believe is right ... this is really a storm in a teacup."
But for those outside the diocese gearing up to celebrate this Thursday's 10th anniversary of the Australian Anglican Church's vote to allow women's ordination to the priesthood, the controversy over women's ministry in Sydney, which maintains a ban on women priests, has been badly timed to say the least.
Allan Reeder, editor of the Australian Church's national independent newspaper, Market-Place, said the Anglican church still had a long way to go in achieving gender equity within ministry.
"In order to confront the male-driven power structures, women need to be in equivalent positions of authority," he said.
"That shows how much Sydney is still generations way from addressing these old-boy networks. The dominant world view in the Sydney diocese is still an adolescent boy thing, which finds it hard to share real authority with any woman."