Canada's Anglican bishops have selected Victoria Matthews of Edmonton, as one of four candidates to be their next primate.
If elected, Matthews, 49, the first female bishop in Canada, would be the first female primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Archbishop Michael Peers steps down in June after 11 years as primate, and 300 delegates to the church's General Synod will choose a new leader May 31 in St. Catharines, Ont.
Matthews is one of the Canadian church's youngest bishops and has risen quickly. After being ordained a priest in 1980, she was elected a suffragan, or assisting, bishop in the diocese of Toronto in 1993, and bishop of Edmonton in 1997.
At the time she was first elected as one of just five female Anglican bishops around the world, she thought it would never be possible for a woman to become primate, but she thought that feminism had changed the church.
"We're preaching a kinder gospel in part, and I don't mean nicer. I mean kinder. I think that feminism speaks about women, but it has something to say to anyone with second-class status. We now have a more inclusive church.
"(Feminism) is the voice of the vulnerable, the voice that has known what it is to be despised. The voice that has known what it is to be abused. The voice that has spent more time observing than speaking, so that when it speaks, it speaks out of a wealth of observation, and usually with far greater awareness," she said.
Matthews is competing for the top Canadian Anglican job against Algoma Bishop Ronald Ferris, 55, Montreal Archbishop Andrew Hutchison and Moosonee, Ont., Bishop Caleb Lawrence, 59.
The new primate will be installed June 4 at the end of the General Synod.