The Rev Vanessa Herrick is a priest in the Church of England, which is presently engaged in deciding through legislation in General Synod whether women bishops will be allowed to serve with the same degree of authority as male bishops.
In her splendid statement which follows, Vanessa covers all the bases as a clear and eloquent voice for justice and equality for women in the Church of England. Her message applies equally to other Christian churches. Although the Episcopal Church has ordained women as priests for 34 years and women as bishops for 22 years, certain Episcopalians have not yet accepted the church’s policies. Vanessa’s words may be helpful as an educational aid to those who still oppose women priests and women bishops to help them catch up with the official policy of the church and the rest of us who believe that all the baptized are to be treated equally.
As the first woman ordained to the episcopacy in the Episcopal Church, The Rt Rev Barbara Harris said, "How can you initiate someone and then treat them like a half-assed baptized?"
Vanessa's words:
Over the past ten years, many words have been spoken. But what has been noticeable is that the voice of women themselves has been relatively quiet. This comparative silence has been the product of generosity, patience and respect. Generosity, because we recognise the pain women bishops would bring for some; patience, because we know it takes time to listen, reflect and work out a way forward; respect, because we value and treasure the rich inheritance and diversity which we share as Anglicans. Indeed, over my own journey of discipleship, I have travelled from roots in the conservative evangelical tradition, through charismatic renewal to a place where I am now most at home in a more catholic setting for worship and a less conservative stance theologically. I love the Church of England – though it can sometimes be the most frustrating institution in the world!
But the voice that has not really been heard is the voice of the women themselves. The ones about whom we are talking. As so often in the history of the church and of the world, it’s the voice of those who’ll be most affected by a decision made about them that sometimes seems to go unnoticed: the voice of women who, at present, have no voice in the House of Bishops; who are unable to respond to a vocation to the episcopate; whose priestly ministries are, in the main, accepted or tolerated but sometimes despised; the ones whose lives, ministries and even identities may be further affected by not being able to enter this third order of ministry. And that’s why I ask that you listen to just a few more words – explanatory and personal – which, I hope, may express something of the feelings of women who are ordained – but also of those – lay and ordained, male and female – who long to see women as bishops in the Church.
So let me offer some brief responses to the key theologically issues.
First, the issue of headship. Much rests (from the conservative evangelical viewpoint) on the interpretation of key texts from Genesis and from Paul. The equality of men and women as being made in the image of God is not disputed. (See Genesis 1.26-28) Where the difficulty arises is in respect of Genesis 3.16 which, as a consequence of The Fall, places the woman as functionally subordinate to the man. This is then further interpreted by Paul as the foundation for a range of understandings both within the church and in respect of marriage and family life, whereby male headship and female subordination becomes the norm.
Amongst others, I believe this interpretation to be mistaken because:
-it fails to acknowledge the fact that the overall trajectory of Scripture is one in which the essential dignity, equality and complementarity of the whole of humanity – disrupted by the Fall – is then fully restored in the New Testament as a result of the work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit; in short, it undermines the efficacy of the work of Christ in bringing about the New Creation;
-it fails to account for the extraordinarily counter-cultural behaviour of Jesus in the way he both related to, affirmed and commissioned women during his time on earth;
-it fails to acknowledge the cultural context in which the early church emerged – one where in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world, women were given no place in public life but were largely confined to the domestic sphere;
To suggest that women should always be subordinate to men is, to my mind, to misunderstand what Scripture says.
Second, there’s sacramental assurance… For me this view is, at best, theologically incomprehensible and at worst positively distasteful. First, I believe it offers a distorted view of orders, for it seems to rest more on the perceived power of human lineage than on authority given by God. Whilst I do believe in the importance and significance of ‘succession’ in the sense that episcopal ordination is the appropriate outworking of the Church’s responsibility only to ordain those whose call has been tested by God and by the Church, a person’s ordination is not, to my mind, dependent upon gender or ‘pedigree’. Ordination is – as with every sacrament – an invitation to the Holy Spirit to pour out the grace of God upon those who seek him. Our authority and assurance in respect of orders therefore comes, primarily, from God – not from anything intrinsic to the character, gender or adequacy of the bishop ordaining. Just as the celebration of the Eucharist does not depend on the worthiness of the President of that Eucharist but (as Article 26 says) is “effectual because of Christ’s institution and promise”, so, I believe, the sacrament of ordination is made effectual by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, irrespective of the gender of the bishop ordaining.
But there is another aspect which troubles me. To say that a woman cannot be a bishop simply because she is a woman and Jesus was a man – and hence a woman cannot ‘represent Christ’ at the Eucharist, (or indeed in any of the other functions vested in episcopal office), is to deny the ‘female’ in God. For, if (as Genesis 1 tells us) human beings are made in the image of God, male and female, then logically, there is male and female in God. And if Christ himself is, as Colossians tells us, “the image of the invisible God” then it follows, by extension that there is male and female in Christ. The priest or bishop thus represents Christ in being human rather than in being male.
But the most uncomfortable – and most distasteful – aspect of this part of the traditional catholic response is the way in which it tells me, at a ‘gut’ level, that I am somehow a charlatan; second-class; incomplete; inadequate. I am sure that those who take this view would deny this outright. But let me ask you: how would it be if, in all these debates, we replaced the word ‘woman’ with the word ‘Muslim’ or ‘Jew’ or ‘black’? We would be horrified at some of the statements that are made….
Third, there’s unity – both within the Church of England; and in respect of ecumenical relations. For some, a woman bishop would be a focus of disunity rather than unity. Some parishes and clergy will not be ‘in communion’ with her. Moreover, the bishops themselves would not be ‘in communion’ with one another – for some will be deemed ‘pure’ and others ‘tainted’; thus the very source of the Church of England’s unity will itself be compromised. Yet, sadly, in practice, our communion is already impaired – even within this Diocese. To ordain women as bishops will make little difference.
The question of unity is also frequently cited in regard to ecumenical relations. However, in relation to Rome, Anglican orders are deemed ‘null and void’ anyway, so having women as bishops would make little difference. Moreover, the presence (for over twenty years) of female bishops within the Anglican Communion has not prevented the continuation of ecumenical dialogue, so there is no reason to believe that women bishops in the Church of England would do so. Indeed, many within the Roman Catholic Church are desperate for the Church of England to ordain women as bishops in order to strengthen their own – albeit muted – campaign to allow women to exercise ordained ministry at all. Add the fact that some of our protestant ecumenical partners will not move forward in partnership with us until the Church of England does fully open its orders of ministry to both genders, and matters are further complicated. Ultimately, the Church of England is part of Christ’s universal church, but its actions and decisions are not to be bound by the constraints of others – whether Catholic or Protestant. It makes its own decisions.
So is this legislation the best we can hope for?
No other province in the Anglican Communion has resorted to legislation to address the issue of women bishops. For some, trust in the generosity, sensitivity and care of one’s diocesan bishop is, it would seem, insufficient. Indeed, the proposed legislation offers those who cannot accept women bishops far greater security than they presently have in relation to women priests: all diocesan bishops will – in law – be required to establish a ‘scheme’ and have regard to the Code of Practice. The draft legislation is complex; it is imperfect; but it may provide a workable solution to the many dilemmas we have outlined.
Inevitably there are drawbacks and anxieties. For women, the drawbacks are significant: the possibility of rejecting their orders and ministry will be enshrined in law and those who so reject them will continue for the foreseeable future to be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops themselves. No other organisation would have to audacity to enshrine such discrimination in law.
In addition, it is likely that those who object to women in the episcopate will continue to press for jurisdiction for their own bishops ‘as of right’ rather than by delegation, by some form of legal ‘transfer’ of jurisdiction, or (as the archbishops attempted to do by their Amendment in July 2010) by some form of co-jurisdiction. This would so weaken the role of the diocesan bishop (whether male or female) that the office becomes untenable. In 2008, and again in 2010, I was a signatory to two letters from some fifty senior women in the Church of England- one to the House of Bishops, the other to the Archbishops. In writing, we indicated that if the Church decided to ordain women to any form of episcopacy that was in some way ‘watered-down’, then we would sadly choose to ‘wait’, rather than press forward. We will simply not comply with anything which would create a form of second-class female bishop.
So is now the right time to be moving forward?
There are those conservative evangelicals and traditional catholics who would say we should wait. But to do so would be incredibly destructive:
-it would prolong the agony of not having resolved this issue;
-it would continue to absorb time and energy and be a huge distraction from our primary task of mission;
-it would deprive the Church – and particularly the House of Bishops – of the wisdom, skills, sensitivity and insight of women in senior leadership in the Church;
More significantly, it would utterly undermine the Church’s credibility as an institution, for – whatever the niceties of theological argument – the wider society will simply perceive a negative outcome on this issue to be proof that the Church of England is anachronistic, out of touch with reality, misogynistic, and plainly discriminatory against women. For most people, the issue of women bishops (if they are interested at all) is one of justice and equality. A decision not to ordain women as bishops – or even to delay – would have a disastrously 0negative impact on the mission of the Church and on vocations. Whilst the Church should not ‘be conformed to the world’, I do believe we have to take very seriously our calling to ‘proclaim the gospel afresh in each generation’ – and that means not only ‘listening’ to our generation, but also being acutely aware of the messages we give by the actions we take.
Finally, something of my own feelings about all this. When I was asked to speak in favour of women bishops, I was reluctant to do so. Not because I don’t believe women should be bishops – I do; but because, for the past eight and a half years, I’ve tried to work as Director of Ministry and DDO with fairness and a degree of objectivity, suppressing my own feelings and sense of disquiet in order to work faithfully in a ministry I feel called to exercise. But I can’t deny in speaking today that there’ve been very painful moments for me as a woman priest in the Church of God. For example, what is it about me that means that the bishop who ordained me is ‘tainted’? Am I ‘unclean’ in some way? Women priests have had to get used to such things over the past seventeen years, but it has often brought tears. For my vocation and my identity can’t be separated: I am a priest. And when I’m told by some that I’m not a priest, then that is an affront to who I am – not simply a denial of my role or job. If women priests are firm and defend themselves, they are accused of being ‘pushy’ or aggressive; if they express their pain, they are accused of being ‘all emotional’.
I’m tired of being perceived as ‘a problem’. I simply want to get on with what I’m called to. God has called me to be a priest and I believe he is calling some of the women in my generation to be bishops. I dare to believe that the Church of England needs us. No one has asked what might happen if the three thousand women clergy in the Church of England were to decide that ‘enough is enough’, and move to another province where their ministry is welcome. No one has contemplated the effect of a further ‘rejection’ of their orders on those without whom the Church simply could not now function. Women clergy don’t wish to hold the Church to ransom: but they also don’t want to be taken for granted. So, please take seriously the pain that we also bear: for it’s very real; and allow us to respond to God within all three orders of ministry – and find ourselves welcomed.
This draft legislation’s passage through the synodical process may well be difficult. Some, on both sides of the argument, will think it is not good enough. My own view is that it’s the best the Church can hope for – a credible way through the quagmire, but not perfect. To delay would, I believe, be a very big mistake – both for our own sanity as an institution and for the mission of the Church. So I hope very much that in October you will vote in favour of moving forward. In the meantime, I pray for all who disagree – that our relationships may be characterised by grace and generosity and not by that acrimony which the media so love. May the Holy Spirit of Pentecost hover over God’s Church giving us discernment, courage and healing as we share together in the task of decision-making and bringing in Christ’s Kingdom.
Vanessa Herrick
June 2011
Posted with Vanessa Herrick's permission.
H/T to Lesley at Lesley's Blog, who first posted Vanessa's statement.
