Church of England votes for women bishops; move seen as ecumenical snag

cns ^ | July 15, 2014 | CINDY WOODEN

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The General Synod of the Church of England voted July 14 to authorize the ordination of women as bishops and approved motions pledging to respect and work with people who believe that, theologically, the vote was a mistake.

Before the vote, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, told the synod that "to pass this legislation is to commit ourselves to an adventure in faith and hope. Like all adventures, it carries dangers ... uncertainties and for success will require integrity and courage."

Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, England, greets Pope Francis during a private meeting at the Vatican last month. (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

One of those uncertainties is its impact on the search for Christian unity. The Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox churches teach that since Jesus chose only men as his apostles, only men can be ordained priests and bishops.

Father Anthony Currer, the staff person for relations with Anglicans at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told Catholic News Service the vote "is not creating a new reality for our dialogue," since other provinces of the Anglican Communion, including the United States and Canada, already have women bishops.

However, he said, "it is significant" that the move was made by the Church of England -- the mother church of the communion -- which is a point of reference for Anglicans worldwide.

With the Anglicans, Father Currer said, "we have communion, which we describe as impaired or impartial. An area we have to explore with our dialogue partners is what is sufficient for the full communion we are seeking."

When the General Synod took the first steps toward preparing for women bishops in 2008, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said, "Such a decision means a break from the apostolic tradition maintained by all the churches of the first millennium and is, therefore, a further obstacle for reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England."

Archbishop Welby characterized the debate as involving "genuine theological arguments which differ," and not simply differences based on cultural influences regarding the role of women.

The archbishop called on the House of Bishops to act on its promises by setting up a procedure for ensuring the place in the church of those who disagree.

"You don't chuck out family or even make it difficult for them to be at home, you love them and seek their well-being even when you disagree," he said.

The vote came after several hours of debate, much of it focused on whether or not the motion offered sufficient guarantees for the place and pastoral care of those with theological grounds for opposing the ordination of women, and on commitments to keep the Church of England united despite differing positions.

After the vote, the Anglo-Catholic group Forward in Faith issued a statement saying it was pleased that the Church of England "is committed to providing bishops and priests for our parishes, enabling us to flourish in the life and structures of our church." However, the group also said it was "deeply concerned about the consequences for the wider unity of the whole church."

The General Synod is elected from the laity and clergy of each diocese and meets at least twice a year to consider legislation for the church. The synod has 484 members divided into the houses of bishops, clergy and laity. Its resolutions must receive the assent of the queen before becoming law.

The vote on women bishops was part of the synod's meeting in York, England, July 11-15.

The Church of England began ordaining women to the priesthood in 1994. Consultative votes in the 43 dioceses of the Church in England showed overwhelming support for ordaining women bishops. Synod members were told that the majority of people in all dioceses voted yes and only nine dioceses reported a favorable vote of less than 90 percent.

A motion on ordaining women bishops failed in the synod by a tiny margin in 2012; commentators at the time said it failed because it did not ensure accommodations for opponents' continued membership in the church.

To address those concerns, the House of Bishops presented "five principles" to the synod, including one that recognized that "those within the Church of England who, on grounds of theological conviction, are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests continue to be within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion."

The bishops promised such Anglicans "pastoral and sacramental provision" in a way that "maintains the highest possible degree of communion and contributes to mutual flourishing across the whole Church of England."

When Cardinal Walter Kasper, then the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was invited to address the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference in 2008, he told the delegates from around the world that ordaining women, especially as bishops, creates an obstacle to the Roman Catholic Church recognizing Anglican ordinations, a key step toward full unity.

The Second Vatican Council recognized that Anglicans held a special place among the Christian communities formed at the time of the Reformation because they maintained the three-fold ministry of deacon, priest and bishop and recognized the bishop's role as a guardian of faith and the point of unity between the universal and local church.

Pope Benedict XVI, responding to a journalist's question on a flight to Australia in 2008, said he hoped the Anglican Communion could "avoid schisms and splits" as they debated the ordination of women "and that they will find solutions that respond to the questions of our age, but that also are faithful to the Gospel."

[NYer]

Ping!

[Vaquero]

I suppose they are channeling there founder. Henery the eigth.

[all the best]

1 Timothy 2:12New International Version (NIV)

12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

[iowamark]

The Anglican/Episcopal Church has decisively broken with Apostolic Christianity. This is just a continuation of that process. There are Christians there hanging on in the hope that things will change but there is no positive sign.

[Chode]

what's next... voting on what commandments to get rid of???

[piusv]

No. Even Henry VIII would have been flat out against this. The only thing women were good for was to give him an heir.

[arthurus]

Church of England votes for Satan’s Party. So what’s new?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Actually I don’t know why women being priests and up is so bad.

If the virtue of chastity is required, I don’t see why it is a problem.

[AnAmericanMother]

It's a big problem in any liturgical church which purports to recognize the efficacy of the Consecration of the elements (i.e. to confect the Eucharist) - some Anglicans do, and some don't (part of the ongoing problem of a lack of doctrinal consistency in that denomination).

Here's the problem: when celebrating Mass on the altar, the priest is "alter Christus" - another Christ. He stands in the shoes of Jesus as he re-presents the Sacrifice, and Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church his Bride.

You can see how having a woman in that position is an ontological and theological problem . . .

[Ransomed]

Theology aside, as a practical matter I’m not sure of any religious group that has allowed women in leadership clergy roles that has then remained orthodox. If there were a bunch of examples of conservative female clergy it might not be that bad, but for some reason all one hears about concerning female clergy is there positive take on one liberal issue or another. For instance, there has never been a group that became more conservative on an issue after they started allowing female clergy, at least that I am aware of anyhow.

Freegards

[the OlLine Rebel]

I think you are confusing cause with symptom.

Many times in the past it was more likely that the women were more conservative. It is generally turned now, but that is not a hard fast rule of history. In fact, women here are just as likely to be conserv as liberal. We are not monolithic.

[Ransomed]

Hey, I’m just looking at every religious group that didn’t admit women as clergy leaders and then did so that I know of. It’s not like you hear about any of that became more conservative after or even remained as orthodox as they were at the time. If women clergy leaders have nothing to do with it, shouldn’t there be some group out there that are really conservative/orthodox that has female clergy as leaders?

Freegards

[AnAmericanMother]

But the sort of women who want to be priests (or 'priestesses') are uniformly liberal.

Back when I was an Episcopalian, I was a member of a parish that was the 'training parish' for the entire diocese. All newly ordained priests/esses served a term in our parish for OJT. So over a period of about 28 years I saw every single priest ordained in the Diocese of Atlanta.

ALL the women were liberal, and 99% of them went to seminary for one political reason or another - to prove a point, to support feminism, or because they were lesbians (that one at least got fired, but probably wouldn't get fired today). With one exception, they were unable to administer a parish or to make a 'command decision'. That one was still incredibly liberal though. She eventually left the parish she got and wound up running a homeless ministry on the south side.

[the OlLine Rebel]

No doubt. That is partly my point. Indeed, only liberal type churches are likely to admit women. And the women who do go are much more likely to be liberal.

I only knew 1 woman clergy. She was in the first Lutheran church we went to. Actually she was very good. But the rest of the church went downhill so we left.

We are between churches now. There is one we just atarted attending to replace the last. While I liked much about our previous church, the pastor was so informal and turning everything into a rock show, with himself as lead rocker. But in any case, our current synod does not allow women clergy, so that will not be happening. But it seems even the most conservative denominations start getting “creep” from pop culture.

[AnAmericanMother]

We were very “high church” Episcopalian, so Rome was a natural destination.