Saturday, July 12, 2008

Anglican tradition is to ordain women says theologian

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/07/anglican-tradit.html

[Times Online] 12 Jul 2008-- I like the fact that the only truly 'flying bishop' in the Anglican Communion is a woman. TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is in England at the moment, ready for the Lambeth Conference. Tomorrow, Sunday, she is preaching at Salisbury if you can get along, although she has some stiff competition with Gene Robinson preaching at St Mary's Putney, also tomorrow. This morning, on Today, US theologian Professor Gary Macy was explaining his theory that the Church has always, until relatively recently, ordained women and that its refusal to do so now is in unorthodox. Earlier this week he sent me his entire paper on the subject, which you can download here. I've also put a couple of extracts below.

Macy writes:

'Women in the Middle Ages played a far larger role in the life of the Church than they would in later centuries. In the early Middle Ages, they performed both sacramental and administrative functions that would be reserved to men after the thirteenth century. They celebrated the Mass, distributed communion, read the Gospel, heard confessions and preached. Some abbesses also exercised episcopal power, and indeed, a few were considered bishops. The powerful Abbess of Las Huelgas in Spain continued to wear her miter and exercise administrative episcopal power until 1874. This paper will discuss the evidence for these claims.'

One paper does not establish that women played a larger role in the early Church as Gary Macy claims. There has to be a wide scholarly consensus that women indeed did play a larger role in the orthodox Christianity and not just in one or two branches of orthodox Christianity on the periphery or in heretical groups. It certainly does not establish that it has been the "Anglican tradition" to ordain women.

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