The Church of England moved another step closer to an unbridgeable schism between traditionalists and reformers on Saturday when its General Synod, or parliament, rejected a bid by the archbishop of Canterbury to strike a compromise over the ordination of women bishops aimed at preserving the increasingly fragile unity of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The rejection of proposals aimed at accommodating those who oppose women bishops appeared to strike a serious blow to the authority of the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, whose position as archbishop of Canterbury makes him the spiritual leader of the Communion. Although he has a long-established reputation as a liberal on theological issues, the archbishop, 60, has spent much of his seven years as the Anglican leader seeking to fashion compromises with traditionalists over the role of women and gays as priests and bishops.
But the votes on Saturday appeared to have blocked, perhaps conclusively, a settlement under which hard-line traditionalists might have accepted the appointment of women bishops. The proposals would have provided for a “complementary” male bishop with independent powers, working alongside a woman bishop, to minister to traditionalists unwilling to accept a woman as the head of their diocese.
I guess it’s all about power and the necessary victory of one’s ideas over the maintenance of mutual affection and peace. How terribly sad.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
oh so predictable and if you cannot see Gods hand in this then you are looking in the wrong place for a future and spiritual authority
I do not have a well researched/developed nor firm position on the issues at hand within Anglicanism in North America or within the wider Anglican Communion when it comes to the ordination of woman as priests or their consecration as bishops.
Having said that, serious theological and practical questions beg and have begged for many years regarding women’s ordination as priests and their consecration as bishops.
One theological/traditional question has to do with the role of women and the sacraments. So my first question is, “Can a woman ‘stand in’ for Christ as a celebrant of The Eucharist?”
A second question is prefaced with an observation that many men seek male leadership and not female leadership and that men tend to ‘shy away’ from such leadership. Whether such behavior is right or wrong or not desirable, its a fact. And if the result of that fact is that men will be less likely to attend church, if they see their parish being ‘run by its altar guild,’ and if this affects the church attendance of the ‘total family’ then women’s ordination/consecration can be said to have negative consequences.
So the question here is , “Is women’s ordination/consecration worth the price?”
And a further comment. I am absolutely opposed to the consecration of individuals as priests who, in their middle age, want to do this just want to ‘change jobs’ and ‘do something different’ and/or who have separated from their spouses because their marriages ‘just aren’t what they used to be.’
And I somtetimes sense and quite possibly very unfairly sense, thatpersons from a background of achievement are seeking new areas of professional achievement to ‘conquer’ when they seek to become priests/bishops.
Anglicanfirst the main arguments against are detailed here:
http://sbarnabas.com/blog/on-the-ordination-of-women/
To my knowledge they have never been answered with theological integrity as opposed to sociological desire