Sydney  - Australia's first female bishop was diplomacy itself when asked Friday whether her own struggle against discrimination had made her more sympathetic towards homosexuals battling for recognition within the church.

"We are, as an Anglican church, at the moment engaged in a long process of listening carefully and attentively to the experience of homosexual Christian people, and that's where we're up to," Bishop Kay Goldsworthy said in Perth on the day following her consecration. "We are searching for the heart of God and the mind of Christ."

Goldsworthy, 51, who in 1992 was among the first cohort of women priests, is the mother of twin 17-year-old boys.

Sydney, one of several of the 23 dioceses that remain opposed to women bishops, will not recognize Goldsworthy as an ordained minister, let alone a bishop.

Women already serve as bishops in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. (dpa)