Thursday, July 13, 2006

It's obvious.

Just received an email briefing from WATCH, including a report from a member of their "General Synod Task Force", who has plenty to say about the debates leading to the votes that have, please God, finally cleared the way for the ordination of women to the episcopate. It's all good stuff, but I wanted to share a real gem.

"Tom Wright’s powerful speech which, in 5 brief minutes, offered exegesis of Mary as the apostle to the apostles, trashed the Da Vinci Code, and made a pertinent and firm response to Cardinal Kasper’s address to the House of Bishops (along the lines of “we are glad to hear from our Roman Catholic friends; but we are Anglicans, and an Anglican is not a sort of misshaped Roman Catholic”). This response is now published as a pamphlet titled “Women and Episcopacy”. Freely available to Synod members in the general hall, there was a notice on the desk saying
“Women and episcopacy – free gift – help yourself”
!
No one could have summed up our position better!"



Can it be that the penny has finally dropped??

2 comments:

Jonathan Hunt said...

As someone who takes the Bible as supreme authority, and who believes that the ordained ministry should be for men only...

I suppose I've got a cheek coming on here but hey, it's a free world.

I just wanted to say this - that in a church which has accepted women priests (taking that as a given) there is no logical reason then why a woman should not fill ANY office within episcopacy. (Not that I agree with church heirachy either but there you have it)

It stuns me that the CoE can try to draw a line somewhere in the middle, and how you can favour a local vicar being a woman and not a bishop. After all, which is the more important role?

Clue... not the Bishop.

Kathryn said...

Well, yes, I can only agree with you on that, Jonathan...I'm sorry we're bound to disagree on the fundamental premise of the ordination of women, but you're very welcome to read and comment, of course. Thank you for visiting.