A second retired bishop has come out in support of Bishop John Crowley’s call for a serious debate regarding “the key theological premises regarding the exclusion of women from the priesthood” and the ordination of married men.
In a letter printed in this week’s Tablet retired Bishop of Portsmouth Crispian Hollis wrote that he was one of the “number of bishops” Bishop Crowley referred to in his letter (published 23 June) as wanting to see the “whole issue of ministerial priesthood, male or female” taken seriously in debate.
Bishop Hollis said in his role as committee member of the Movement for Married Clergy: “We have repeatedly requested that the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales should establish a commission, comprising bishops, priests, deacons and laity, so that there can be a proper and official discussion about the ordination of married men. Our repeated requests have received no substantial reply.”
While he made clear that he was not calling for celibacy to be abolished he wrote: “we are saying that priesthood and marriage are not mutually exclusive”.
Of Bishop Crowley’s mention of the possible ordination of women, he said: “All these questions are current at various levels in the Church and proper and considered discernment needs to be made.”
Speaking to The Tablet on 3 July, he clarified: “If we’re going to look at the nature of ordained ministry we should also look at women’s ordination, that shouldn’t be excluded.” He added that, personally, he didn’t see it as an equally pressing priority as it was the “less achievable” of the two options.
In his letter Bishop Hollis wrote that debates around ordination are “taking place informally among our people and in many of our parishes today” and “should become official, so that a proper discernment can be made.”
He concluded: “The matter is urgent and the diminishing number of priests is real. I have said it before and I say it again: ‘The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.’”
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