Women bishops and the Church of England
So, the first Anglican Church (St Peter's Folkestone) has taken the decision to convert to Roman Catholicism. What does that mean? Is anyone really bothered?
I have heard it said by those who did not support the ordination of women that to ordain women would make the Church of England nothing but a sect. A priest (presumably the vicar of St Peter's Folkestone) said that if the Church of England ordained women as bishops then the Church of England will no longer have the right to call itself catholic. Interesting point. But the word catholic means universal. Is this vicar putting forward the view that the Church of England will no longer be able to proclaim a message of salvation that is open to all? Didn't the same Jesus die for the people of England as the Jesus who died for people in Italy and Spain?
I have been a practicing Christian since 1979 and I have heard it said on a number of occasions that the Church needs to put its own house in order before it can truly get on with the job it was meant to do, i.e. proclaim the gospel. The problem is that the Church has got a lot of issues to deal with and if we waited till all of these were attended to satisfactorily then we will never get on with what we are meant to do. The gospel would never get proclaimed.
The problem is while the Church debates and considers its next move, the world looks on. I wonder, what does the world see today?
Do they see a relevant and fit for purpose faith community that can meet their needs? Do they see that God's love is for them? Do they see Jesus?
Or do they see a faith community that is behind the times? An organisation that met the needs of society in times past but not now?
Society continues to change and I'm not advocating that the Church should change all the time just to appear trendy and relevant. But I believe that we must know the society in which we are called to proclaim the gospel. How are we seen by a society where women's equality with men is understood and accepted? If society values women and enshrines their rights in law, how do they see the church which bars them from the top posts of its management structure?
All churches will eventually have to grasp this issue including the Roman Catholic Church. The offer by the Pope to Anglican parishes to convert to Rome without loosing their distinctiveness should be seen not just as preserving the past but trying to hold off the inevitable. The Roman Catholic Church will get more priests at a time when it has difficulty in recruiting more and at a time when its received some bad press in the wake of the child abuse scandals. Having more traditionalists opposed to the ordination of women within the Church of Rome would certainly help it keep the calls for reform at bay. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. There are Roman Catholics calling for women to be ordained. In the year that Henry Newman was beatified could we not look at such movements as a development? Could not the ordination of women and women bishops be seen as a theological development which is intended by God? We have been given the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised. Could this be where the Holy Spirit be leading the Church?
Many people who defend the staus quo argue on the lines of spiritual headship, that leadership is male (at least on spiritual matters) Adam was meant to rule with Eve until sin entered the world. Even after what Jesus did on the cross which enabled St Paul to say that there is neither male nor female, men were still the ones in charge. There is some evidence that in the early church men and women took on a more equal role within the church but this seems to have changed as the church modified its presentation under the imperial power of Rome.
Could what is developing in our time with regards to women's spiritual authority be what God always intended? The prophet Jeremiah gives us an interesting saying in Jeremiah 31:22. "The Lord will create a new thing on earth - a woman will protect a man."
What I find interesting about this verse is that it is in a section of Jeremiah where it talks about Israel returning to God and returning to the land. It is a passage about hope and expectation which includes the looking forward to the new covenant. Women's leadership within God's people is tied up with what God wants to do in the end times which I believe that we have been in since the death and resurrection of Jesus.
What exactly is God doing? I believe that it is restoring right relationships. First between humanity and God then between people and people, men and women adult and child.
We are being called to model right relationships between the genders within the Church in order that the world may see the glory of God within them. As the world changes so too must we be open to change in order to demonstrate and proclaim God's love to all. (And also to receive God's love.)
Change may be hard for some but change must not be for changes' sake. We must ensure that change is by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and that it is consistent with scripture. Then we can move forward. A potential problem could be for those who change Churches is that if Women's ordination as priests and bishops is consistent with scripture and there continues to be a shortage of male priests then the change may not even happen eventually in those other traditions.
I have heard it said by those who did not support the ordination of women that to ordain women would make the Church of England nothing but a sect. A priest (presumably the vicar of St Peter's Folkestone) said that if the Church of England ordained women as bishops then the Church of England will no longer have the right to call itself catholic. Interesting point. But the word catholic means universal. Is this vicar putting forward the view that the Church of England will no longer be able to proclaim a message of salvation that is open to all? Didn't the same Jesus die for the people of England as the Jesus who died for people in Italy and Spain?
I have been a practicing Christian since 1979 and I have heard it said on a number of occasions that the Church needs to put its own house in order before it can truly get on with the job it was meant to do, i.e. proclaim the gospel. The problem is that the Church has got a lot of issues to deal with and if we waited till all of these were attended to satisfactorily then we will never get on with what we are meant to do. The gospel would never get proclaimed.
The problem is while the Church debates and considers its next move, the world looks on. I wonder, what does the world see today?
Do they see a relevant and fit for purpose faith community that can meet their needs? Do they see that God's love is for them? Do they see Jesus?
Or do they see a faith community that is behind the times? An organisation that met the needs of society in times past but not now?
Society continues to change and I'm not advocating that the Church should change all the time just to appear trendy and relevant. But I believe that we must know the society in which we are called to proclaim the gospel. How are we seen by a society where women's equality with men is understood and accepted? If society values women and enshrines their rights in law, how do they see the church which bars them from the top posts of its management structure?
All churches will eventually have to grasp this issue including the Roman Catholic Church. The offer by the Pope to Anglican parishes to convert to Rome without loosing their distinctiveness should be seen not just as preserving the past but trying to hold off the inevitable. The Roman Catholic Church will get more priests at a time when it has difficulty in recruiting more and at a time when its received some bad press in the wake of the child abuse scandals. Having more traditionalists opposed to the ordination of women within the Church of Rome would certainly help it keep the calls for reform at bay. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. There are Roman Catholics calling for women to be ordained. In the year that Henry Newman was beatified could we not look at such movements as a development? Could not the ordination of women and women bishops be seen as a theological development which is intended by God? We have been given the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised. Could this be where the Holy Spirit be leading the Church?
Many people who defend the staus quo argue on the lines of spiritual headship, that leadership is male (at least on spiritual matters) Adam was meant to rule with Eve until sin entered the world. Even after what Jesus did on the cross which enabled St Paul to say that there is neither male nor female, men were still the ones in charge. There is some evidence that in the early church men and women took on a more equal role within the church but this seems to have changed as the church modified its presentation under the imperial power of Rome.
Could what is developing in our time with regards to women's spiritual authority be what God always intended? The prophet Jeremiah gives us an interesting saying in Jeremiah 31:22. "The Lord will create a new thing on earth - a woman will protect a man."
What I find interesting about this verse is that it is in a section of Jeremiah where it talks about Israel returning to God and returning to the land. It is a passage about hope and expectation which includes the looking forward to the new covenant. Women's leadership within God's people is tied up with what God wants to do in the end times which I believe that we have been in since the death and resurrection of Jesus.
What exactly is God doing? I believe that it is restoring right relationships. First between humanity and God then between people and people, men and women adult and child.
We are being called to model right relationships between the genders within the Church in order that the world may see the glory of God within them. As the world changes so too must we be open to change in order to demonstrate and proclaim God's love to all. (And also to receive God's love.)
Change may be hard for some but change must not be for changes' sake. We must ensure that change is by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and that it is consistent with scripture. Then we can move forward. A potential problem could be for those who change Churches is that if Women's ordination as priests and bishops is consistent with scripture and there continues to be a shortage of male priests then the change may not even happen eventually in those other traditions.
