Sunday, July 6, 2008

Church Schism widens over women bishops

From The Independent:

Divisions appeared to widen yesterday between senior Church of England clergy on opposite sides of the debate over the consecration of women bishops, as the issue dominated the agenda at the General Synod.

The Synod has already agreed to the principle of women bishops, but has yet to decide what should be done to appease the 1,300 clergy who are threatening to leave the Anglican Church over the issue. ....

Talks might yet be hampered by claims last night that some bishops have already secretly met advisers to the Pope, relaying their concerns over a “liberal” direction to senior Vatican figures.

So what does the POPE have to do with a Church of England issue?
Traditionalists voiced their objections to a national code of practice

The Rev Angus MacLey of Sevenoaks in Kent said such a code would be "inadequate" and "unworkable" for those who wanted to set themselves apart from women bishops.

.....

The possibility of women bishops had strong backing from male members of the Church attending the synod. Tim Hind of Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset called for women to be freed from the "shackles" of legislation.


How much of this is of-a-piece with the anti-gay viewpoint? Is it all based in misogyny and sex-is-icky viewpoint? Although I suspect that a number of the anti-women are gay Anglo-Catholics who really ought to be in Rome.

Just me, I suppose.

18 comments:

Lois Keen said...

I commend to you a book called "New Wine" by Pamela W. Darling, if you can find a copy of it. It may not be in print any longer.

The thing about women in the priesthood and the episcopate is all of a piece with racism and a refusal to desire a new worldview in favor of LGBT persons. The piece that holds these three together is patriarchy.

It becomes most confusing when gay clergy stick it to fellow LGBT persons, and when women carry around those little cards like the one I picked up in Walsingham in 1990 that asked that if the person with the card was found to be in extremis, do not under any circumstances call a female priest, no matter what.

Or when this one woman at the Cathedral in Delaware would leave the service before the Eucharist at 8 a.m. whenever my mother, a mere laywoman (although there was nothing "mere" about Grace Kwik Keen!) was the chalice assistant.

Anonymous said...

Make that "my mother-in-law" Grace Kwik Keen.! Sorry.

IT said...

I am not a cultural relativist. I believe there are certain absolutes, and I find it breathtaking that there are people today want to apply the rules of a patriarchal middle-eastern fundamentalism to modern life.

If you asked them whether they agree with a Sharia-type law, they would be horrified, but at some level that is exactly the kind of oppressive tribalism they are revering.

Cany said...

Oy. The Pope. That is all I can say about that matter. It is amazing to me, though, that we have this WO debate over and over... after 2000 years, we really have not moved much.

it's margaret said...

If these priest/bishops are so interested in cowtowing to a Roman priesthood and episcopate --I must ask, are they married?

Paul (A.) said...

And if they disbelieve that a female can represent the image of Christ, have they been circumcised?

Anonymous said...

yet to decide what should be done to appease the 1,300 clergy who are threatening to leave the Anglican Church over the issue

Say "See ya---wouldn't want {for the sake of your eternal souls, yada-yada} be ya!"

JCF: delurking, for the sake of the curious {Nag* IT *Nag!}

James said...

To quote a song from the 1960s....
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn.

The Church of Wales just said "no" to women bishops. I posted about it.

James said...

Thanks to David who pointed out the news service feed was wrong - the CoW voted in April, not today.

June Butler said...

OT, but congratulations on the birth of the new blog! It's great that you're doing this. IT a blogger now! Fancy that. Gonna hafta give y'all a link.

Frank Remkiewicz aka “Tree” said...

Wheter we like it or not, particularly in the US and several other "industrialized nations" there is a culture war going on. It involves the old order of things being transformed into a new multi-cultural platform that many older white males seem to resent. Whether it is education for every child, or female priests and bishops or human rights for EVERYBODY including LGBT, or a woman or a black president, we all need to pause every now and then and try to figure out how we are contributing to that staid old musty way of doing business and how we can better serve humankind. "you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone."

Caminante said...

Partriarchy is not going out quietly but like my cats when I try to put them into the carrier to take them to the vets: every single claw out and all four paws arranged just so that you can't get them into the box. Until we settle on WO, we'll not be able to on LGBT ordination.

johnieb said...

to decide what should be done to appease the 1,300 clergy who are threatening to leave the Anglican Church over the issue. ....

I suppose a dope slap and directions to an exit is too much to ask for, given the news lately.

Lynn said...

I hear conflicting stories about the current supply/demand of priests in the COE. On one hand, it seems they are short of young people seeking the vcation - on the other, that full-time rector positions are few and far between, implying a current over-supply of priests. (Hmmm, any connection between the first and second? Do you suppose these young people want to use their pastoral skills AND feed a family?)

If all these priests leave the CofE - and we know that won't, reality check please - perhaps some solid, experienced priests finally find a way to make a decent living. Departure of 1,000+ uber-conservatives might end up being no more than a massive early retirement program, at no cost to the Church or government.

I am shooting from the hip here. Blast back (use blanks) if I'm taking a naive, uninformed Yankee take on this.

Anonymous said...

While it's still early days here: could we get the comments thread to pop open on its own, ala {sniff} Jake's, and MP's?

David said...

JCF,

Ask, and you shall receive ;)

Anonymous said...

Thanks!

Now, would it be too much to get rid of time-wasting (esp. on Dial-up!) "Word Verification"?

David said...

No, sorry - don't want to get rid of that. Seen too many blogger.com sites with all sorts of "comment spam" in them when this is turned off (ads for Viagra, cheap mortages, etc...)