Articles of Interest
The Church Times
Women bishops: hope for traditionalists
by Bill Bowder
Debate: coverage of the General Synod session in July 2008 |
THE COMMITTEE responsible for the progress of the women-bishops legislation through Synod is seeking to reverse the decision made in July 2008 to proceed by code of conduct only. Those who cannot accept the authority of women bishops have argued that their position should be protected by statute.
A statement issued on Thursday by the revision committee, chaired by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, suggests that it agrees.
"The committee received nearly 300 submissions, including more than 100 from members of General Synod. Many of these offered alternatives to the proposal in the draft legislation to make provision by way of statutory code of practice for those unable on grounds of theological conviction to receive the episcopal and/or priestly ministry of women."
The committee states that it "voted to amend the draft Measure to provide for certain functions to be vested in bishops by statute rather than by delegation from the diocesan bishop under a statutory code of practice".
During a long and, at times, acrimonious debate in 2008, the General Synod decided by a clear majority that it was satisfied that a code of practice would be enough to protect traditionalist parishes where the diocesan bishop was a woman. Traditionalists, on the other hand, argued that no code of conduct could be made binding enough.
But the committee concluded that objectors needed greater reassurance if they were to continue to play their full part in the Church.
The committee said that it planned to work out the consequences of its decision in subsequent meetings, and would complete its task by Christmas. Its report would be ready for Synod to debate it at its February meeting in London.
"The Committee has considered each of these alternatives: additional dioceses; the vesting by statute of certain functions in bishops with a special responsibility for those with conscientious difficulties; the creation of a recognised society for those with conscientious difficulties; and the adoption of the simplest possible legislation without a statutory code of practice.
Synod could still amend the draft legislation to return it to the 2008 motion. Thereafter, a majority of diocesan synods would have to vote for the legislation, before it came to the Synod for final approval. The statement concludes: "On any basis it is unlikely that the first female bishop will be consecrated before 2014."
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Britain's first woman bishop to take office this weekend
History will be made this weekend as the first female bishop to serve in a British church takes office. However the Church of England continues to argue about how and when women should be introduced to the episcopate, while the Roman Catholic Church maintains that only men can serve as priests. So it has been left to the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, which has just a few thousand worshippers, to become the first to take the radical step. The Rev Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, whose parents were Latvian refugees but who was born in England, will be consecrated as the church’s first female bishop on Saturday at a ceremony in the City of London. She will take over from the Rt Rev Walter Jagucki as the head of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, one of 10 Lutheran groups based in the country, and the service will be witnessed by fellow worshippers from around the world.
Her pioneering appointment has been welcomed by Christina Rees, the chairman of Women and the Church, who is a leading campaigner in the struggle to get female bishops installed in Anglican dioceses.
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... Within 20 years, however, most villagers in England will be more surprised if their new vicar is not a woman.
According to a report due for release this autumn, there will be as many female priests as male by 2025. The study, entitled Religious Trends, concludes that without the rapid growth in the number of women being ordained - as many women will be becoming priests as men by the end of the decade - some parishes would be forced to close...
"The traditional stereotype of the middle-aged male priest is part of the Church's historical legacy, so when I started five years ago people would be surprised to see a young female priest. That is no longer the case. It has ceased to be a great unknown or something for people to fear or be worried about."
Miss Allen, the parish's first female incumbent, said some people still saw women priests as "slightly unusual", but predicted that in 10 years sex would no longer be an issue.
An inspirational article - please Click Here:
Catholic women in unofficial ordination
Some other churches now allow women priests.
Nine women have been ordained as Roman Catholic priests in a secret ceremony in Austria on Saturday which could lead to their excommunication from the church.
It is a protest against doctrine and church law which discriminates against women 
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The ordained women's' statement |
The women, who are from Austria, Germany and the United States, gathered on a boat on the River Danube for the ordination. The ceremony was conducted by Argentine Archbishop Romulo Braschi, who was himself ordained as a Roman Catholic priest but has since joined a church not recognised by the Vatican.
The ordination of the women is fiercely opposed by leaders of the Catholic Church in Austria and Germany, who described it as a "cult spectacle".
...The debate on the consecration of women bishops has been bewildering to many people, including some Anglicans. The Church of England decided 15 years ago, rightly I think, that there is no theological objection to the ordination of women as priests.
Now half those accepted for ordination are female, and there are women canons, archdeacons and even a dean. Why not bishops?
One can understand that Anglo-Catholics should feel qualms about women bishops, as they did about women priests, and it seems reasonable that they should have their own male 'super bishops', as was proposed at the Synod yesterday.
But the country looks on in amazement as Anglo-Catholics threaten to resign en masse, and to rip apart a Church that is, frankly, already tottering.
Their arguments seem arcane, particularly in view of the earlier acceptance of women priests, and almost insanely inwardlooking.
...Opponents of women bishops claim that they should have legal provision under a new regime and the women's lobby is anxious to make a code-of-conduct solution work, for fear of legislation that creates a two-tier episcopacy. Canon Peggy Jackson, Dean of Women's Ministry in Southwark Diocese, referred to those who cannot accept women bishops as "conscientious objectors" and said that there was a "moral obligation to provide for conscience."
Church of England Faces Split over Women Bishops - Click Here To Read Article
Women priests and their continuing battle
By Rebecca Fowler
Rebecca Fowler on 15 years of women priests and the battles they fought - and are still fighting.
When the Rev Dr Jennifer Cooper was ordained at Bristol Cathedral a month ago, it was a moment of uncomplicated joy. "I was overwhelmed to be surrounded by so many people, sharing in this very powerful moment," she says. "I was finally going to fulfil my calling." ...
....And, since the ordination of women... their presence is now taken for granted: more than 2,000 out of 9,500 Anglican clergy are women, as are almost half of trainee priests. And yet no issue has divided the Church so violently in recent times as that of women priests.
From the moment it became a reality, after a vote of the General Synod in November 1992, there was talk of schism and threats of an exodus to Rome. "This is the death of the Church," concluded one opponent. "You can no more ordain a woman than a pork pie," suggested another.
Catholic church punishes women for supporting female priests
"Cry as if you have a million voices; it is silence that kills the world." ~ St. Catherine of Siena
Sister Louise Akers, a 66-year-old Cincinnati Catholic nun, was banned two weeks ago from teaching in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Her crime? She supports the ordination of women priests.
The injustice of the disciplinary action inspired Dr. Carol Egner, a lifelong Catholic and gynecologist, to write a letter to The Cincininati Enquirer in support of Akers. In her letter, Egner said she could find no biblical justification for not allowing women to the priesthood and pointed out that allowing women priests could reduce the burdon of the current priest shortage. "I agree with ordaining women as priests now," she wrote. "And perhaps if we had already been doing this, words like sexual abuse would not be associated with the Catholic Church."
When the Rev. David Sunberg, the pastor of Egner's church, read her letter, he demanded she write another renouncing her position. When she refused, she was told she could no longer teach her religion class for sixth-graders at Our Lady of Lourdes parish. According to The Enquirer:
Egner, who has been a volunteer teacher for two years, said she never discussed her views on women priests in her religion class and she told Sunberg she never would bring it up. Her letter does not identify her as a teacher and does not name her parish.
"I feel the punishment is disproportionate," Egner said. "Priests have abused boys and their punishment was disproportionate the other way. I feel the church really hasn't taken responsibility and addressed that, and yet I can't write a letter to the editor. I don't get that."
Frankly, the Catholic church's dismal position on women and reproductive rights disgusts me, but I also recognize that these positions will only become more stringent and harsh without input and leadership from its female parishioners.
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Catholic woman in secret ordination |
A woman has been ordained as a priest in a secret ceremony in central Europe as an act of defiance against the Roman Catholic Church.  The woman who was "ordained" does not want to be identified |
Three years ago, the Vatican moved decisively against an international movement for the ordination of women when it excommunicated the so-called Danube Seven. Seven women had claimed the status of priests after a form of ordination ceremony held on a boat moored on the river Danube. Now a similar ceremony has taken place in a private chapel in central Europe. BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents Crossing Europe witnessed the event but only on condition the programme does not reveal the exact location or the identity of the young woman. |
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Women Priests — No Chance
JOANNE BOGLE
There is a general assumption, especially in North America and Europe, that the Catholic Church’s insistence on a male priesthood is an obscure anomaly, which endures only because a Polish pope has refused to move with the times.
“But everyone agrees that the Catholic Church will one day ordain women. Surely it’s just this pope who is holding things back? The next one is bound to change the rule!”
The point is made frequently and always with the same confidence. There is a general assumption, at least in Europe and North America, that the Catholic Church’s insistence on a male priesthood is an obscure anomaly, which endures only because a Polish pope has, in the 1990s, refused to move with the times.
Yet the times have often favored a female priesthood and never more so than when Christ ordained His first priests, nearly 2,000 years ago. Virtually all the pagan religions of His day had priestesses, and it would have been entirely normal and natural for Him to choose women for this task. He had, moreover, a number of excellent potential candidates, from His own Mother, who accompanied Him at His first miracle and stood with Him as He suffered on the cross, to Mary Magdalene or the women of Bethany. Instead, He chose only men, and He remained immovable on this, continuing right to the end to exhort and train them all, leaving thus a Church which turned out to be safely founded on a rock. From those twelve men a direct line of apostolic succession has given the Catholic Church the bishops and priests it has today.
Full Article Can Be Read By Clicking Here
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