Friday, July 11, 2008

When compromise fails

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11707758

[The Economist] 11 Jul 2008--What makes a group (of voters, relatives, believers) stick together, even when its membership is varied and quarrelsome? Sometimes deference to a common authority; sometimes fear of adversaries; sometimes common axioms that trump any differences; and sometimes a sentimental “family feeling” that makes people tolerant of eccentricity or even obnoxious behaviour. If none of those factors is present, then break-up looms.

The Church of England may be approaching that point. Matters came to a head at the session this week of its ruling General Synod, which saw more than its share of tears, jeers and cheers. The topic under discussion—or so it was reported— was whether women, who have served as priests since 1994, could also be bishops.

Actually, that was not precisely the matter at issue; the idea of women bishops had been accepted in 2005, and nobody suggested that this decision was reversible. The furore was over what accommodation, if any, should be made for the minority of the faithful who disagree with the idea of women bishops (and, in most cases, with the idea of women priests). Of these, some say that administering the sacraments (to put it simply, rites in which God’s grace is mysteriously invoked) is a male-only prerogative; others take literally the teaching of Saint Paul that authority in the church is best handled by men.

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