Why the women bishops legislation shouldn't be changed

As a body, the Church of England cannot hold two opposing views on women's ordination simultaneously. It is clear that, as individuals, we all hold our very different views on this subject in good conscience and with integrity. But that is very different from saying that official church policy is that both views are equally correct. A church cannot with integrity ordain people whom it simultaneously considers both validly and invalidly ordained.

Since women have been ordained to the priesthood for nearly 20 years, it is clear that the Church of England is a church that ordains women. Synod has repeatedly affirmed since 1975 that there is ‘no fundamental objection to the ordination of women', and the recent diocesan synod voting shows that the consecration of women bishops is the will of the church. It is important that the legislation to allow women bishops is not framed in such a way as to throw doubt on the legitimacy of very thing it is legislating for. Historically, the whole point of Canon A4 was to make explicit that the Church of England has both the legal right and the ecclesiastical power to legally and validly ordain its own clergy. It would be invidious to undermine that statement now over this issue.

Some argue that it is simply impossible for a woman to be a priest or a bishop, and so wish to avoid both our ministry and that of male priests or bishops tainted by association. But this cannot be

accepted as valid simply because it is a deeply held belief. The key theological principle at stake is Gregory Nazianzen's famous phrase, ‘the unassumed is the unhealed'. If this is accepted, then Christ, as the fully representative human being as well as fully God, must be understood as essentially having assumed humanity , rather than maleness . In Aquinas' sacramental terminology, Christ's maleness must be essentially accidental, the substance of the incarnation being Christ's humanity. If the maleness of Christ is to be understood as a key salvific characteristic of the incarnation, or if gender is understood as a fundamental division within humanity, then the theological implication is that women are not included in the saving activity of the incarnation. On this understanding women, to put it bluntly, not only cannot be ordained, but cannot be saved.

The Church of England must firmly and decisively distance itself from any such suggestion, and this is why the full incorporation of women into the threefold ministry of the church is of such immense theological value. It is therefore crucial that the legislation does not compromise this fundamental understanding of gender as an essentially secondary characteristic to humanity.

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes.

Extracted from the full text at:

http://mirandathrelfallholmes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/why-women-bishops-legislation-shouldnt.html

GRAS