Liberals… [Monday] night welcomed the Church of England’s decision to proceed with plans to ordain women as bishops.
At the annual conference at the Modern Churchpeople’s Union they supported the General Synod’s vote which passed the plans with a statutory code of practice.
Jonathan Clatworthy, general secretary of the MCU, said, “This paves the way for equal treatment for women and men through all the layers of the church, without discrimination. We consider this to be of fundamental importance. The code of practice has yet to be drawn up and we would urge those charged with the task to protect this vital principle so that the church fully reflects the best insights of the 21st Century.”
John Plant, chair of the MCU, said, “We believe this affirms the vocation of women and, at the same time, allows the church to be inclusive of those who take other views. We hope this allows traditional catholics and conservative evangelicals to continue to contribute to the rich diversity of Anglicanism.”
Translation, “We won” and “You ain’t seen nothing yet” because we plan to force upon all the best thinking of the 21st century and it happens to be ours; meanwhile, keep those pews warm and the pledges coming in. Luv & gratification, MCU
It seems that the CofE will continue to head down the same route as TEC. The Anglo Catholics are finally being driven out. ISTM that the next step will be the erosion of the open evangelicals – for they will need to choose between orthodoxy and liberalism when it comes to SSU. So that like TEC the church will be dominated by Progressive protestants (some with a taste for vestments and some not) with a minority conservative evangelical grouping.
“We believe this affirms the vocation of women and, at the same time, allows the church to be inclusive of those who take other views. We hope this allows traditional catholics and conservative evangelicals to continue to contribute to the rich diversity of Anglicanism.” Not TOO terribly disingenuous, is it? [sarcasm off]