Consecrating female bishops in the Church of England
Liberal and conservative viewpoints. Timeline.
Sponsored link.
Overview:
As noted in the menu that links to this essay, the General Synod of the Church of England voted in
favor of the ordination of
women priests in 1992. Consecration of female bishops was authorized in
principle during
mid-2006. Women are not expected to be actually consecrated until
about 2015.
Positions of liberals and conservatives within the Church differ:
To religious liberals, this step would drastically reduce the level of sexism within the
Church. They feel that discrimination against women is immoral and is an
embarrassment within the larger culture that has generally eliminated privileged
treatment of men. They typically base their viewpoint on:
The biblical theme of
justice which permeates the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Old and New
Testaments)
Paul's statement about sexual equality in Galatians 3:28:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
They also
note that of the 40 names that Paul mentions in his
letters, 16 were women. As Helmut Koestler wrote:
"That's a considerable proportion of women involved in
the Pauline missionary effort." 1
To many conservative groups within the church, both Evangelicals and
Anglo-Catholics, denial of consecration to women is also a key concern. They
view men and women as being equal but complementary, and feel that the two sexes
should be confined to specific roles within the family, in the church, and in the rest of society.
Positions of power are to be given primarily to males. Most would wish to deny female ordination as
priests, because that would assign them a role as equals to men. Their opposition to
the consecration of female bishops is even greater, because it would install
women in a supervisory role involving male priests.
They base their
opposition on specific passages in the New Testament, including:
1 Timothy 2:11-15 in which the author did "not permit a woman to teach
or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."
1 Timothy 3:2 specifies that overseers and deacons must be men.
1 Corinthians 14:34b-35 states that women must be silent and in
submission when in church.
Statement by one conservative group, with possible rebuttals:
"Forward in Faith" is a conservative group which is actively
opposed to female priests and bishops. They state:
Forward in Faith is a worldwide association of Anglicans who are
unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as
bishops.
Forward in Faith is opposed to the ordination of women to the
priesthood and the episcopate for three simple reasons.
First, it is a practice contrary to the scriptures as they
have been consistently interpreted by the two thousand year tradition of the
churches of both East and West.
Second, we hold that the ordination of women by individual
provinces of the Anglican Communion, without inter-provincial agreement or
consensus, is a schismatic act, impairing communion between provinces by
subverting the interchangeability and mutual recognition of orders between
them.
Third, mindful of the unity for which Our Lord prayed on
the night before he died, we are bound to repudiate an action which has
willfully placed a new and serious obstacle in the way of reconciliation and
full visible unity between Anglicans and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox
churches. 18
In rebuttal, liberal Anglicans might suggest:
First: The Hebrew and Christian scriptures accept and regulate human
slavery. Christianity historically accepted the ownership of people as
property until part way into the 19th century. With few exceptions, Christian
faith groups have repudiated human slavery and regarded the institution as
profoundly immoral.
Second: Most of the 36 provinces within the Anglican
Communion allow the ordination of women. Thus, the norm for the Communion is
to ordain all competent dedicated persons regardless of gender. If there is
any schismatic act in existence it is among the minority of provinces that
continue to discriminate against women. Lack of interchangeability does not seem
to be a problem; those provinces that continue their discrimination on the basis
of gender simply
refuse to accept female priests as validly ordained.
Third: The Anglican Communion, Roman
Catholic Church, and Orthodox Churches have been evolving
along different paths for generations. No significant
progress has been made towards unity in spite of significant
efforts over the past few decades. There are tens of thousands
of Christian faith groups in existence worldwide. There is
no real possibility of achieving unity -- unless, of course, if God decides to
tell humanity which is the true religion and the
true denomination within that religion.
Steps towards eliminating gender discrimination within the
Church of England:
Between 1920 and 1992, efforts concentrated on allowing
female candidates to be ordained as priests. The
first priest was ordained in 1994.
1994 The first women priest was ordained.
2000: Judith Rose, the Archdeacon of Tonbridge,
introduced a motion to the General Synod to debate the
consecration of female bishops
2005: After two positive working party reports,
General Synod agrees to "set in
train the process for removing the legal obstacles" blocking
consecration.
2006:
The Synod agrees
that women bishops "would be consonant with the faith of the Church
A
legislative working group is established under the the leadership of Right Rev Nigel McCulloch.
2008:
Synod voted in favor of consecrating women bishops. They also create a code of practice for traditionalists
who cannot accept gender equality in the church.
2015: The earliest time that the first woman
bishop will probably be consecrated.
If the 2015 date is achieved, then the entire process to ordain female
deacons, priests and to consecrate female bishops would have taken about 88
years. This is approximately twice the length of a person's entire career from graduation to
retirement.
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
Dr. Helmut Koester, "The
role of women in the Christian churches of Paul's day." This is a
series of excerpts from his speech titled "St. Paul: His Mission to
the Greek Cities & His Competitors," given to the Foundation for
Biblical Research, Charlestown, NH, on 1997-SEP-13. It is available
at:
http://www.bibletexts.com/
