Anglicans to allow women Bishops

[Fidei Defensor]

[url="http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=115752&region=3"]http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region...115752&region=3[/url]

The General Synod of the Church of England has voted to remove the legal obstacles preventing the ordination of women as bishops.

The move has riled conservative Anglican leaders, some of whom have threatened to quit the church.

Traditionalists have argued that Jesus Christ chose only men as his Apostles – the forerunners of the modern bishops.

The most senior house of the synod, the House of Bishops, voted 41 for and only six against the motion that was introduced by the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Tom Butler.

Clergy members backed the resolution, 167 to 46.

Speaking at the synod in the northern English city of York, Bishop Butler said the decision to start the process in motion had been duly considered, coming 11 years after the ordination of the first women priests.

“The Church of England, Catholic and Reformed, has before acted prophetically for the wider church vernacular liturgy, married clergy have all been pioneered by our church and have proved to be a blessing to other communions also. The same, I believe, will be true of women’s orders which we are pioneering,” Bishop Bulter told the 500 assembled delegates.

One of the bishops, Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, reportedly told the Sunday Times that he would probably switch to the Roman Catholic Church, where its all-male clergy is vigorously defended, if the church agreed to allow women bishops.

Sir Patrick Cormack, an opposition Conservative Party MP and member of the synod said Bishop Burnham’s departure would most likely be one of many.

“I do feel that this is a divisive move and I fear that a lot of people will probably leave the Church of England as a result.”

Around 300 priests and thousands of churchgoers abandoned the Anglican faith in the 1990s in protest at the ordination of women priests.

Of the 38 member churches of the Anglican Communion, three have already ordained women priests: Canada, the US and New Zealand.

The process for allowing women bishops to be ordained in Britain is expected to take four years, but could see the church return to the bitter turmoil that followed such controversial decisions as the acceptance of gay clergy.

Last year, church leaders called for the US Episcopal Church to apologise for going ahead with the ordination of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

[Brother Adam]

Eventually someones going to figure out that only the Catholic Church is not ordaining women, marrying gays, and allowing abortions. That someone will be coming home.

[Apotheoun]

I am not surprised by this decision.

[TLJC]

[quote name='Apotheoun' date='Jul 12 2005, 08:13 PM']I am not surprised by this decision.
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I agree, it was always going happen, its a shame....
Also i might add, alot of priests have switched to RC and that was before this news in the last year alone.... I wonder how many more will now follow.

Edited July 12, 2005 by TLJC

[Ash Wednesday]

<sarcasm>

:applause:

</sarcasm>

[Paladin D]

The whole sad thing about this, many people think the Catholic Church is sexist because we do not ordain women into the priesthood. Even when we explain the theological reasons, it still doesn't do any good. At times it saddens me how society cannot see the valid reasons why for this. Makes the Church look as if it's "behind the times", that it "oppresses women", and that it's a haven for "pedophiles". I say we just let the Terminators take over the planet, and start over.




I want to be pregnant. Oh wait, I can't, because women are sexist and are oppressing us men!

[MilesChristi]

Well, hopefully this will be a catalyst for many more Anglicans/Episcopalians to swim the Tiber.

[kateri05]

sigh... can't say i'm surprised that a church founded on the premise of allowing the king to get a divorce would eventually send itself down the tubes

[peach_cube]

Duh. What did they expect. Once you allow women priests women bishops would be the next step.

[Snowcatpa]

[color=purple] Not that I agree with their decision, but it's really not completely against the Anglican Church's theology anyway, is it? I mean... while there are deeper spiritual reasons for why men are priests (men called to a spiritual and clerical priesthood like women are called ot a spiritual or physical motherhood) one of the big ones too is that marriage is a sacrament, to be performed in persona Christi. If they don't believe it's a sacrament...it doesn't seem like they're defying their own theology like doing so in Catholicism would be. You know? Am I mistaken on this? [/color]

[Spiritual_Arsonist]

Ouch. Talk about getting away from your roots.

[RandomProddy]

Doh.

[Tony]

weren't they seeking Communion with Rome? this is a step backwards for sure

[CatholicCid]

"A man of conscience, is one who never acquires tolerance, well- being, success, public standing, and approval on the part of prevailing opinion, at the expense of truth." Papa Benedict XVI

[Guest T-Bone]

All those who leave the Anglican church and join us Catholics are more than welcome! We should rejoice!!

[kdewolf2]

This is what happens to a church that decides having a progressive agenda is more important than being faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know that much about Anglican theology but they don't seem to want union with Jesus and the apostles, let alone the Bishop of Rome. It's just about being progressive and feeling good about ourselves.

[Didacus]

[quote name='Brother Adam' date='Jul 12 2005, 12:54 PM']Eventually someones going to figure out that only the Catholic Church is not ordaining women, marrying gays, and allowing abortions. That someone will be coming home.
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But others will be more distant from the Catholic church than ever!

The religious Christian world is segregating, the gray areas are disapearing. soon there will be only the fervant Catholic, and the fervant Protestant groups totally opposed to the Catholic churche's orthodoxy and infaillible doctrine. Those destined to change camps are doing som and once this is complete - what will happen from there?

I don't know... I don't know...

[Didacus]

[quote name='CatholicCid' date='Jul 13 2005, 03:23 AM']"A man of conscience, is one who never acquires tolerance, well- being, success, public standing, and approval on the part of prevailing opinion, at the expense of truth." Papa Benedict XVI
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[b]Longue vie a notre Papa!
Long live the Papa![/b]

[Didacus]

[quote name='Snowcatpa' date='Jul 12 2005, 09:13 PM'][color=purple] Not that I agree with their decision, but it's really not completely against the Anglican Church's theology anyway, is it?  I mean... while there are deeper spiritual reasons for why men are priests (men called to a spiritual and clerical priesthood like women are called ot a spiritual or physical motherhood) one of the big ones too is that marriage is a sacrament, to be performed in persona Christi. If they don't believe it's a sacrament...it doesn't seem like they're defying their own theology like doing so in Catholicism would be. You know? Am I mistaken on this? [/color]
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I think your thoughts are right on target snowcatpa...


They who deny the truths of the past have no future.

Once they will eventually have completed their disintregation of their founding Catholic doctrines... their future will be sealed and void.

[cappie]

Church split over women bishops widens
By Malcolm Brown
July 14, 2005

A split between the Sydney Anglican diocese and the rest of Anglican Australia has intensified after the primate, Dr Phillip Aspinall, supported the Church of England's moves to clear the way for the consecration of women bishops.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, said yesterday the issue itself would not prompt the diocese to secede, but it would be "more difficult" to welcome outside bishops if the rest of the Australian church followed Dr Aspinall.

"This is not something to be welcomed by us," he said.

"But it would lessen the bonds of fellowship."

Dr Aspinall has declared his support for a resolution by the Church of England on Monday to remove legal obstacles to the appointment of women as bishops, saying it is consistent with a decision by the church's general synod last October to endorse the principle of female consecration.

Dr Aspinall said: "More thinking and consultation also needs to take place in relation to those who cannot accept the consecration of women as bishops to ensure the unity of the church to the greatest possible degree."

A hearing is in progress before the Australian church's supreme legal body, the Appellate Tribunal, seeking clarification of the question.

Presided over by Justice Peter Young, chief judge in equity in the Supreme Court of NSW, and including three other lawyers and three bishops, it has called for submissions from dioceses across the country.

The tribunal will decide whether the church's constitution prevents the consecration of women bishops, given women can be ordained as priests.

Dr Jensen said dioceses in Armidale, Ballarat, the Murray and north-western Australia were expected to join Sydney in opposing female consecration.

The Sydney diocese was in favour of women filling many roles, including those of deacons, and there were many women in training.

But it opposed them exercising priestly functions.

The issue was not "gender specific", he said.

Women as well as men opposed the movement towards women bishops, and it would be "interesting" to see how dissenters in England fared.

The issue of consecration of women bishops came before general synod last year and got through the initial readings. It obtained the required two-thirds of the vote in the House of Bishops but failed by relatively small margins to get through the houses of Clergy and Laity.

Elaine Peterson, president of the Sydney Movement for the Ordination of Women, welcomed Dr Aspinall's announcement but despaired of the vote getting through general synod.

"I am a little bit resigned to the fact that it will not occur for some time, maybe not in my lifetime," she said. "But I am not sure how many of us will be in the church then."