In a conversation in Cambridge this week, The Tablet brought together three distinguished scholars – Eamon Duffy, Janet Soskice and Rowan Williams – to talk about the ordination of women. Is it time to reignite the debate in the Church?
When the Church of England decided to ordain women bishops last year, Archbishop Bernard Longley, the co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic) declared gloomily that it placed “a further obstacle on the path to unity between us”. For Anglicans, the issue of women in ordained ministry has been more or less settled for several years. Meanwhile, in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, the ordination of women remains almost a taboo subject. There is an international conference in Philadelphi
02 July 2015, The Tablet
Releasing the cork from the bottle
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User Comments (1)
We Catholics who attend Mass and present ourselves to receive the Eucharist from our male priests are grateful that for so long there have been enough priests to enable us to receive this wonderful gift.
However, it does occur to me that the very first person to present Jesus to the world was, in fact, a woman, who worked with God alone to effect this miracle.
Does it not seem a little odd that in spite of the fact there seem to be vocations to the priesthood sent down from Heaven to women as well as men, the wonderful traditional approach of our dear Church seems to be acting as something of blockage . . . could the splendid charisma known as Discernment perhaps need spectacles with its advancing years?
Sarah T M Bell