The Archbishop of Canterbury has mounted a direct challenge to the Roman Catholic Church's stance against the ordination of women priests.
In a speech in Rome today, he made clear there could be no turning back of the clock on women priests to appease the Pope, the Catholic Church or malcontents in the Church of England.
....
And in a significant departure from Anglican polity, he did not apologise for the ordination of women priests, the development in 1992 that derailed progress towards full unity between the two churches. Instead, he issued a direct challenge to the Catholic prohibition on women's ordination and said that refusing to ordain women could not enhance a Church communion.
Oh good. As primus inter pares of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury will not demand an end to the ordination of women priests or that the existing women priests be defrocked to please the pope. I'm pleased to know that there are limits to what the ABC will do to please the pope.
"For many Anglicans, not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptised men and baptised women," he said.
When the ABC references the baptized, he enters deep waters. The attitude toward and treatment of baptized GLTB persons by certain Anglican churches come immediately to mind. What about a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptized straight persons and baptized GLTB persons?
Bishop Barbara Harris gets it right in her sermon at the Integrity Eucharist at GC09:
More importantly, if indeed the church honestly believes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender folk should not be bishops, then the church should not ordain them to the sacred order of deacons. For certainly, if one is deemed fit to be ordained a transitional deacon, then one should be deemed eligible to move into the sacred order of priests and to be elected and consecrated to the episcopate. If you don’t want GLBT folks as bishops, don’t ordain them as deacons. Better yet, be honest and say, “We don’t want you, you don’t belong here,” and don’t bestow upon them the sacrament of Baptism to begin with.
How can you initiate someone and then treat them like they’re half-assed baptized?
Really, it's quite simple.
"..not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the..." His writing alone makes me crazy. Eschew obfuscation!
ReplyDeleteamyj
Amy, I know what you mean. Shall I edit the title of the post?
ReplyDeleteIf he could only follow the implications of his own words, but perhaps he confuses himself.
ReplyDeletePaul, I take special pleasure in using a person's own words against them. Is that sinful?
ReplyDeleteWhat gets me is, after all this waiting for Williams to say or do anything other than preen himself as ABC, all we get is this convoluted bit about women's ordination and the ordinariate dealie - which is, frankly, as far from defiant as I can imagine - and the kicker, the really funny part is, over on Thinking Anglicans, otherwise-intelligent people are saying things like:
ReplyDeleteThere is such an integration of holiness with theology, a kind of integrity that is both prophetic and disarming.
Rowan Williams' speech is a glorious statement - majestically mature theology that shows up the pettiness of curial obsessions, without using a single ungracious word.
I think Rowan is to be congratulated on his epic stance on the issue of the relative importance of First Order and Second Order doctrinal matters. That is enough to keep the Vatican thinkers busy for the time being. Don't expect everything all at once from Rowan. He is only one person in the Communion, and still has valuable gifts to share with all of us.
I give up!
Bury Anglicanism at the crossroads with a stake through its heart!
I thought his speech was very good.
ReplyDeleteHe talks as he talks, there's nothing you can do about it, but he is consistent, logical and thoughtful.
The fact that he keeps getting the lgbt issue wrong and is morally bankrupt over Uganda should not distract from the fact that this was a very good speech.
Mimi, have you changed your profile picture again? I like it!
Well, yay.
ReplyDeleteWhen they give out public speaking awards, I hope he gets one.
When they give out leadership awards, I hope he gets prosecuted for dereliction of duty.
Mussolini gave great speeches and could actually get trains to run on time! Let's all hear it for Mussolini!
Anyone?
Not for Mussolini, no.
ReplyDeleteBut where do you draw the line?
When is one moral failing so great that it obliterates everything else someone says or does, and when does being a normal human being with strengths and weaknesses and with moral blindspots start?
Oooh Mimi and saint Barbara Harris in the room I love it!
ReplyDeleteIf only Rowan were listening.
Erika perhaps where one could draw the line is at Rowan's silence in the face of the Ugandan legislation which will see imprisonment for some and death penalties for other of our LGBT brothers and sisters. Legislation aided, abeted & blessed by the leadership of the Church of Uganda.
Public acts by that same leadership which has gone unchallenged by the ABC among too many others.This isn't some abstract theological debate, lives are at stake over the unchallenged homophobia (passive or overt) within our Church.
I could draw another line back in Tanzania where certain primates verbally abused ++Katherine and stormed out of the Holy Eucharist.
Another line... how about Canterbury 2008 when the strongest moral witness was the one exiled outside the Big Blue Tent; when the ABC served up a dish for exiled bishop for a bunch of primates and bishops who didn't even show up.
Erika, you and I agree of much often, but I truly believe the ABC has a lot to be held to account as a public leader in the Church, and the Church will have to deal with the effects of these silences, this inactivity before we can become a safe and healthy place.
Thanks Mimi
I would not compare Rowan to Mussolini, but even after this speech, which shows that he may have fragments of a human spine left, I believe that he is a failed Archbishop of Canterbury. It would take something like a road to Damascus type of reversal for him to redeem himself in his position as ABC.
ReplyDeleteMark, I haven't been over to Thinking Anglicans yet today. GLTB folks in the Anglican Communion don't need "majestically mature theology". They need help and pastoral attention, and they need it now.
David,
ReplyDeleteI agree with all those lines - they show either a lack of moral awareness or of moral courage and they have very serious actual consequences for many people.
I make no excuses.
And, Mimi, I agree that he is a failed ABC.
I still don't see why standing up firmly to Rome and supporting female bishops cannot be welcomed in its own right.
Perhaps it's just an English thing, and that's why Rowan is so dismally useless.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't stand up to Rome, Erika.
Sorry, but it was neither forceful or challenging.
Maybe it would be to Englishmen, and that's the problem; Rowan can only speak to Englishmen. The rest of us see this as nothing more than, to paraphrase:
"Many would be upset with me if I tried to stop WO. We don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe, one day you won't either."
Not forceful. Another Chamberlain, speaking to another German dictator who understands only blunt and (so sorry!) challenging words like we poor barbarians who can't attain to the lofty heights of CofE hierarchy understand.
But, yeah, I get the message: women are okay, gays . . . well, they can wait.
Chamberlain didn't get any results either.
ReplyDeleteThe theological stuff that comes our of Rome is often at least as obscure.
He said firmly that the AC will continue to ordain women priests and that the CoE will consecrate women bishops. And he questioned the whole previous way of ecunemical dialogue and proposed another way of looking at the issue.
That may not sound much to you, but show me any modern ABC who has ever drawn the line so firmly?
Look, I don't respect his line on lgbt's and I think it's positively immoral and dangerous.
But I can't be doing with this harsh judging of absolutely everything he does - attack the bad, ignore the good.
I hope for my own sake that God will be a kinder judge on us people than we seem to be on each other.