An largely unrecognized aspect to the stresses and fractures within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion is that the most vehement opponents to accepting gays in the rituals and organization of the church also appear to be those most vehemently opposed, then and now, to women’s ordination, as a perusal of the comments to this article demonstrates, as well as those who have made it clear that they cannot recognize Bp Jefferts Schori as our Presiding Bishop because … well … y’know … she’s got girl cooties!.
Those arguing in those comments against women’s ordination (or “WO” so you understand the phrase) boil down there arguments to:
- There’s no scriptural foundation for it (because we say there’s not!).
- Girl priests have caused all sorts of ills in the church, driven off male parishioners, turned theological debates into emotion-fests, and decorated the rectory all funny.
- God made women to have babies, run bake sales, and teach Sunday School. Except, y’know, where Paul says they shouldn’t be teaching in churches — does Sunday School count there?
- Catholics don’t allow it, so we shouldn’t.
- And, of course, WO is really the secret plot, the camel’s nose under the tent, for GO. It’s not even worthy of discussion on its own merit, because it’s really a cabalistic plan by gays to get themselves through the door, relying on all those compassionate girlie priests to let it happen.
Really. You can find people saying pretty much all that. Well, maybe without using the word “girl” as much.
Maybe if we turned the overall debate in TEC back to women’s ordination, it would clarify some of the stances under discussion. It was the approval of women’s ordination that led to the first big exodus of folks from TEC, and to this day there are bishops who simply decline to do it. Not coincidentally, they’re also some of the core bishops in the current schism debates.
How many of the separatists are looking to undo that decision, too, using the Gay Thing as a current, perhaps more palatable excuse?
Yep, we Catholics don’t allow it. That doesn’t mean it is always going to be that way. Hopefully by the next Pope, they’ll come to their senses.
Just guessing, but I bet the Nigerians are against ordaining women.
Yeah, you’d be pretty safe with that. I strongly suspect the whole gay thing is providing some of the Primates cover for not wanting to deal with girl cooties at their meetings.
Viz the Catholics, I suspect we’ll see an end to celebacy before Rome okays female priests. How much the delay down that path will hurt the Church, or how else it might evolve in the meantime (since I don’t see that happening within the next decade or two) remains to be seen.