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.
