Is God a She?

There has been some discussion of late as there are now woman bishops in the Church of England and this suggests that, you know, God COULD be a she as well as a he.

“When we use only male language for God we reinforce the idea that God is like a man and, in doing so, suggest that men are therefore more like God than women,” Rev. Emma Percy, chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, told the Sunday Times. “If we take seriously the idea that men and women are made in the image of God, both male and female language should be used.”

It caught the attention of Phyllis Zagano in the National Catholic Reporter (a liberal RC newspaper):

What next? Now even the Church of England is talking about admitting that maybe, just maybe, inclusive language can be used to describe God. You know, the whole "She Who Is" business.

....Think it will catch on? I mean, what if all Christianity understood God as the limitless being beyond gender, in whose image all are created? That would mean women could image Christ. And you know what that could lead to.

Snort.

Woman nominee for bishop in Scotland

From Ruth Gledhill:

Oxford graduate Dr Alison Peden has been chosen as one of three candidates for the vacant episcopal see of Glasgow and Galloway in Scotland. If she is elected on 16 January, she will become the UK's first woman bishop. It would in many ways be fitting for Scotland to be the first UK province to have a woman bishop. The US had the first one in the world, Barbara Harris, who incidentally was nominated back in the 1970s by Mary Glasspool, now lesbian bishop-elect in Los Angeles. Scotland and the US church go back generations. After the American Revolution, the Bishop of London, who had previously ruled over the American church as if it was a far-away London parish of little importance, refused to give newly-independent US Episcopalians a bishop of their own. So they went to Scotland, which duly obliged. The surprising thing about Scotland is that it has taken this long to put a woman on a shortlist after their General Synod voted in favour back in 2003.

So, given that many provinces of the Anglican Communion do not support women as priests, let along bishops, why is it no one is schisming over them? Just wondering.....

UpdateHow prescient I am. The Wounded Bird is reporting that schismatic Bp Iker might be leaving the schismatic group ACNA over the woman issue:

Essentially the ordination of women as priests and bishops is schismatic. It continues to be the major cause of division among those who consider themselves to be orthodox Anglicans. As long as the ordination of women continues, we will be in a state of impaired or broken communion. It is a barrier to unity.

Women in Texas

From the Wall Street Journal:

FORT WORTH, Texas -- For three decades, a succession of conservative bishops here barred women from being ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church.

But the conservatives went their own way last fall, forming the Anglican Church in North America. And so on Sunday, exactly one year after that schism, Susan Slaughter will become the first woman in the Episcopal Church's Forth Worth diocese to don a red stole for ordination to the priesthood.

"God works in mysterious ways," Ms. Slaughter said, "and this is one of those."

The national Episcopal Church has been ordaining women priests since 1977, but a handful of holdout bishops around the country, including here in Fort Worth, refused. Bishop Jack Iker viewed women's ordination as a departure from traditional church practices and a break from the Biblical model of male priesthood.....

The ceremony at St. Luke's in the Meadow -- where Ms. Slaughter will become rector after her ordination -- is expected to be packed. It will be streamed live online for those who can't find seats.

Ms. Slaughter said she's overwhelmed. "The joy others are feeling humbles me," she said....

Ms. Slaughter says she doesn't consider her ordination a political statement but she recognizes that many in the audience will find the moment deeply meaningful.

Katie Sherrod is one of them. The wife of a retired Episcopal priest, Ms. Sherrod still recalls with absolute clarity the moment she first heard a woman consecrate the Eucharist, years ago, in a different diocese.

"My whole life, I'd heard it said in a man's voice," Ms. Sherrod said. So when a woman priest held up the host, or communion wafer, and declared 'This is my body," Ms. Sherrod said joy and relief washed over her. "It was the first time I got it. It spoke to me. I was part of the body of Christ too," Ms. Sherrod said. "It changed everything."

Iker Won't Recognize Female Priests in Pittsburgh

In an interview over on the (so-called) Anglican Mainstream site, former Episcopal bishop Jack Iker discusses his relationship with ordained women in Bob Duncan's breakaway group in Pittsburgh:

Correct. I’m in communion with him [Duncan], and I’m in a state of impaired communion with women he ordains to the priesthood. Obviously they’re welcome in our churches, but not as celebrants of the eucharist.

They've barely got this "new thing" off the ground, and they're already arguing with each other over, well... purity issues.

Anyone for a serving of Schadenfreude Pie ?

It's Buffy's fault

The Telegraph reports that according to a new academic study: The old-fashioned attitudes and hierarchies of churches are causing a steep decline in the number of female worshippers.

The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.

It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.

The study comes amid ongoing controversy over the role of women in all Christian denominations. Last month its governing body voted to allow women to become bishops for the first time, having admitted them to the priesthood in 1994, but traditionalist bishops have warned that hundreds of clergy and parishes will leave if the move goes ahead as planned.

The report's author, Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church.

"Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church.

"Women's ordination, as priests and now bishops, has dominated debate and headlines – but while looking at women in the pulpit we have taken our eyes off the pews, where a shift with more consequences for the church's survival is underway."

Her research, published in a new book called Women and Religion in the West, cites an English Church Census which found more than a million women worshippers have left churches since 1989.

Over the past decade, it claims, women have been leaving churches at twice the rate of men.

In addition, the census is said to show that teenage boys now outnumber girls in the pews for the first time.

Gee - you think -- young women are tired of the sexist rhetoric of church?

Talk among yourselves until I return in two weeks --- Ann

LGBT Anglicans Back on the Chopping Block

After the release of Part Three of the Windsor Continuation Group's Preliminary Observations, the Rev. Susan Russell issued the following statement:

LGBT Anglicans are back on the chopping block based on the work of the Windsor Continuation Group. While we recognize that this is a long-term process, sadly, what was continued today was the process of institutionalizing bigotry and marginalizing the LGBT baptized. Acceptance of these recommendations would result in de facto sacramental apartheid.

Read the rest of the statement on the Walking with Integrity blog.

Well...It seems Episcopalian Women aren't the Only Uppity Ones

Hat tip to Dennis on this one!

Hindu priest shortage spurs women to take up profession from the Chicagotribune.com
Fewer men choosing religious service

This interesting article talks about how women are filling in vacancies as priests, as fewer educated men are pursuing the priesthood. One of the women priest notes that if a man is educated, he doesn't view the priesthood as prestigious as some secular occupations, resulting in fewer men pursing the path.

While there is nothing in the Hindu scriptures which prevents women from being priests, and like Christianity, there is suggestion that women performed priestly duties and were involved in philosophical discussions, etc., according the very early texts, such as the Veda. Despite this, women priest in American and India do face some scorn from conservatives who don't feel women should be priests.

So...apparently...Christianity isn't the only religion losing male leaders to the secular world. Nor the only religion whining about that fact, instead of being grateful there are people there to help perpetuate the religion.

Interesting article! Thanks Dennis!

ETA - Link to the Article should work now. Thanks Jarred!