Women’s Ordination: A Way forward?

The recent disappointment over the failure of the Church of England Synod finally to approve the ordination of woman bishops has brought the matter under a political spotlight, with suggestions that parliament should remove the exemption of the CoE from the provisions of equality legislation, the removal of the existing (all male) bishops from the House of Lords, or both. Any such removal of the equality exemption would have implications for ordination as Anglican bishops not only for women, but also for gay men and transgender priests. There could also be implications for the Catholic Church: in a posting at the UK Call to Action website, one contributor has described how she has written to her MP on the subject:

 It is very interesting that my excellent MP, Frank Field, has introduced a Bill to Parliament seeking to remove the temporary exclusion granted to the Anglican Church regarding sexual equality. Frank sees to remove that so that the Church cannot exclude women priests from becoming bishops. I wrote to ask if he could extend the removal of the exclusion also to the Catholic Church. It would be interesting to know what effect this could have in the UK.

Phoebe – the only deacon named in the NT!

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DIY Catholicism: San Diego Variety

Probably only a few Catholics would recognize the Mary Magdalene Apostle Faith Community as truly “Catholic” (they most certainly are not “Roman” Catholic. Any remaining family likeness to the Roman church will be diminished even further now, after the congregation ordained a female priest Saturday.  Now read that again – the congregation ordained her. Unlike the Roman Catholic womenpriests movement, which has at least credible claims to valid apostolic succession for their bishops, which makes the ordination of their priests “valid, but not licit”, this congregation did not bother with  even a pretence of a bishop.

They are not simply in “dissent” from Vatican teaching, they are in open defiance: a pastor very explicitly reminded the congregation of the Vatican’s recent dire warning on women’s ordination. I liked the response:

Associate Pastor the Rev. Rod Stephens opened the evening with a warning: Any woman attempting to be ordained, or anyone who ordains a woman is automatically excommunicated. “Right on!” one woman cried out.

–San Diego News

Picture from "Womenpriets", http://www.womenpriests.org

Yet Another Woman Bishop. Ho, Hum!

While the Vatican wrings its hands over the “grievous sin” of the attempted ordination of women, yet another woman, Rev. Teresa Snorton, has been ordained bishop, this time in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, in Mobile, Alabama. She is just the latest among many women formally recognized as bishop in modern times, including at least two lesbians:  Eva Brunne of the Swedish Lutheran Church, and Mary Glasspool, Episcopalian bishop in LA.

The Anglican communion has been ordaining women as bishop for over twenty years (the first was Barbara Clementine Harris, in Massachusetts, back in 1989). Since then there have been 17 more, including Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is now the first female primate of an Anglican region. There are also Anglican bishops in New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Cuba (yes, really!).  The Church of England has approved the principle of women bishops, to tale effect from 2012. Female bishops have also been approved, but not yet appointed, by Anglican churches in Bangladesh, Brazil, Central America,  Ireland,  Japan,  Mexico,  North India,  Philippines,  Scotland, Southern Africa,  and Sudan.

The United Methodist Church in the US was the first mainline Protestant denomination to appoint a woman as bishop, Marjorie Matthews in 1980. There have been 2o more since. In Germany, Rosemarie Wenner has been the leading bishop in the United Methodist Church since 2005. The Lutheran church in Germany also  has women bishops, as they do across Europe.

Don’t forget either the bishops of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, South African Patricia Fresen, Austrian Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and German Gisela Forster, or the powerful abbesses of the medieval church, whose authority in some instances exceeded that of their local bishops.

So, without any disrespect to Rev. Snorton, her selection as a female bishop, is of consequence primarily to her local community, her denomination, and her family and friends.  The ordination of female bishops, let alone priests, is now old news. Will someone please tell the Vatican?

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Kentucky native becomes first woman bishop of her denomination

The Rev. Teresa Snorton, a Hopkinsville, Ky., native who earned degrees at both of Louisville’s seminaries and started her ministry here, has become the first woman bishop in the 140-year history of her denomination.

The Joy of Traditional Catholicism

Mark Jordan is a Catholic academic and writer whom I always find stimulating and exciting.  He is highly regarded for his historical work as a medievalist, but that historical perspective has also made him a notable commentator and analyst on issues facing the Catholic church. Far too often,  people (and I am including here a great many who should know better) speak glibly of Catholic or Christian “tradition”, totally ignoring the simple fact that the positions they are presenting are not traditional at all. In their historical research, Jordan and others have clearly shown just how much of what is presented as “tradition” on sexuality and marriage is nothing of the sort. (See, for instance, my summaries on these points in “Give me back that Old Time Religion“, and “The Church’s Changing Tradition” ).

Early Christian Agape Feast, Catacomb painting (Wikimedia)

This is an important point in the continuing discussion about Vatican II.  There are those who see it as a dangerous attempt to overturn the “traditions” of the Church in the interests of “modernity”.  It was not.  An important part of the significance of the council was precisely that it was an attempt to go behind the (relatively ) “modern” innovations of the modern period, to return to truly “traditional” teaching. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has usefully summarised some of the ways in which the Council returned to authentic tradition.  It: