Christian campaigners for inclusive church compared to IRA
-17/02/05
A well-known conservative Evangelical has likened women’s groups campaigning for a more inclusive church to the IRA.
Rev David Banting of Harold Wood, Essex, who chairs the conservative evangelical pressure group Reform demanded that women’s groups campaigning for change should be called off, and questioned their belief in God, reports the Guardian newspaper.
The comments came as the Church of England edged towards a decision over whether to appoint women bishops, in the face of male allegations that women either did not really believe in God or were akin to IRA terrorists.
At the end of three hours of debate in the church’s general synod – essentially its parliament – meeting in London, members accepted the advice of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it should discuss the matter further at its next meeting in July, with a decision on whether women priests are fit to be bishops perhaps some time next year.
If the decision is finally taken then, it will still take several years for the first female bishops to be appointed.
The vote comes 31 years after the Church of England decided there were no fundamental objections to the ordination of women to the priesthood, 20 years after the US Episcopal church elected its first female bishop and 12 years after the first ordinations of women took place in the Church of England.
Yesterday’s synod heard calls from male representatives that the church was in danger of moving too swiftly. But ordained women members could barely contain their impatience at the slow progress of change or the attitudes of some of their male colleagues.
The Rev Christine Hardman, the Archdeacon of Lewisham in south London, told the synod: “If in 20 years’ time we are still doing this and being distracted by this issue we will be heading towards self-destruction. One and a half million people have turned away from the church to the Da Vinci Code. We are letting people down and need to grapple with this.”
The synod was debating a report published last November following several years of deliberation by a church committee – with a majority male membership – headed by the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester. It offered a range of alternatives, from agreeing to women’s consecration as bishops to rejecting it, but did not come down on one side or the other.
The bishop told the synod: “There are those who feel that as a matter of justice women priests should now be eligible for Episcopal appointments and that the church’s credibility is being damaged.
“There are others however who argue that now is not the right time. The church is facing a number of serious issues which threaten to divide it. Is this really the time to introduce another cause?”
One representative, Gerry O’Brien of Sevenoaks, Kent, went further, claiming that many ordained women did not believe central tenets of the Faith – he suggested a survey had shown that only a third of women priests believed in the virgin birth of Christ.
There were some men who supported the women’s case. The Very Rev David Brindley, dean of Portsmouth, said: “If a woman can represent Christ at the altar, she can represent Christ in a position of oversight. The vast majority of deans hope before long women can become bishops and we are looking forward to welcoming them into our cathedrals.”
The archbishop told the synod he had set up another working group to evaluate the options proposed in the previous report, to report back to the next synod meeting.
Christian campaigners for inclusive church compared to IRA
-17/02/05
A well-known conservative Evangelical has likened women’s groups campaigning for a more inclusive church to the IRA.
Rev David Banting of Harold Wood, Essex, who chairs the conservative evangelical pressure group Reform demanded that women’s groups campaigning for change should be called off, and questioned their belief in God, reports the Guardian newspaper.
The comments came as the Church of England edged towards a decision over whether to appoint women bishops, in the face of male allegations that women either did not really believe in God or were akin to IRA terrorists.
At the end of three hours of debate in the church’s general synod – essentially its parliament – meeting in London, members accepted the advice of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it should discuss the matter further at its next meeting in July, with a decision on whether women priests are fit to be bishops perhaps some time next year.
If the decision is finally taken then, it will still take several years for the first female bishops to be appointed.
The vote comes 31 years after the Church of England decided there were no fundamental objections to the ordination of women to the priesthood, 20 years after the US Episcopal church elected its first female bishop and 12 years after the first ordinations of women took place in the Church of England.
Yesterday’s synod heard calls from male representatives that the church was in danger of moving too swiftly. But ordained women members could barely contain their impatience at the slow progress of change or the attitudes of some of their male colleagues.
The Rev Christine Hardman, the Archdeacon of Lewisham in south London, told the synod: “If in 20 years’ time we are still doing this and being distracted by this issue we will be heading towards self-destruction. One and a half million people have turned away from the church to the Da Vinci Code. We are letting people down and need to grapple with this.”
The synod was debating a report published last November following several years of deliberation by a church committee – with a majority male membership – headed by the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester. It offered a range of alternatives, from agreeing to women’s consecration as bishops to rejecting it, but did not come down on one side or the other.
The bishop told the synod: “There are those who feel that as a matter of justice women priests should now be eligible for Episcopal appointments and that the church’s credibility is being damaged.
“There are others however who argue that now is not the right time. The church is facing a number of serious issues which threaten to divide it. Is this really the time to introduce another cause?”
One representative, Gerry O’Brien of Sevenoaks, Kent, went further, claiming that many ordained women did not believe central tenets of the Faith – he suggested a survey had shown that only a third of women priests believed in the virgin birth of Christ.
There were some men who supported the women’s case. The Very Rev David Brindley, dean of Portsmouth, said: “If a woman can represent Christ at the altar, she can represent Christ in a position of oversight. The vast majority of deans hope before long women can become bishops and we are looking forward to welcoming them into our cathedrals.”
The archbishop told the synod he had set up another working group to evaluate the options proposed in the previous report, to report back to the next synod meeting.