A decision to say no is a decision
The Bishop of Durham suggested in his address to his Diocesan Synod (21 May 2010) that the Church of England should delay moving forward with the proposed legislation to allow women to be bishops, instead making time to engage in further theological debate.
It sounds so reasonable, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. Delay doesn’t mean everything stands still for a bit longer. A decision NOT to move forward is as active and life-changing for the Church as a decision to go for it. There is no such thing as a decision to do nothing, or to stand still.
what beats me with people who want everyone to wait until everyone agrees theologically (quite apart from the fact that day will never actually come) is that they don’t seem to notice a little stream of women quietly exiting the church by the back door. There are plenty of women I’ve met whose faith in the Church has dribbled away bit by bit until they no longer feel it either welcomes or represents them. I talked to another woman only last weekend who has left the CofE to join the Quakers.
The Bishop of Durham is a very clever man, and has stated that he believes women should be ordained. So why he is either happy with, or unaware of, the risk of losing yet more of the women of the Church, I can’t imagine.
6 Responses to “A decision to say no is a decision”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Thank you for expressing this, Maggi. There seems to be a lot of fear of “splitting” the church – as if the present situation is not already one of division and (sadly) mistrust. Delaying will, I fear, just prolong the agony – sic . Most people now say that they are in favour of women in the episcopacy; outside the the church I haven’t met anyone who has a problem with this idea. And there are very few outside the ranks of committted church politicians who are worried by the idea of women as bishops. There are certainly some lay people who feel that they have been disenfranchised from their local church by clergy who keep women out! This is wording used by a couple I met a month or two ago.
It’s a bit like the often used example of pulling off a plaster – in the end it’s better to do it and get it over with, than think that the pain is any less by waiting with the plaster half off. Not that we shouldn’t take the unhappiness of those wo fear women as bishops seriously, but taking it seriously doesn’t mean colluding with the pretence that waiting will make it any easier – it won’t. And it will make it a whole lot better for many, many other people, both in and out of our church congregations.
You are quite right, Maggi (except, perhaps, that it is not only women who find this delaying alienating). The more I learn about theology, the more I am begining to understand that, often, what we are doing in the university is trying to make sense of what is already ‘trending’ in the churches (and by this, I refer to the laity predominantly).
University theology often appears to be playing catch-up to actual changes in the church – how believers are behaving, acting, thinking. The ‘official theology’ of the Church (as a hierarchical entity), to some extent inevitably and maybe rightly, follows quite often behind both.
It seems in this case, people are trying to invert that order, and try to stop everyone from singing until we all have the same hymn-sheet. That can only serve to stifle worship and creativity, and disempower church members, who feel increasingly that the hierarchy is so far from where they are at.
So many of us identify as Anglicans by such a battered thread already; and I think we shall pray that the voice of +Durham goes unheeded in this instance.
Thanks Maggi – wise words.
Female bishops have been a blessing to us in the Canadian church.
Fr. Dan Graves
Ah……ecclesiastical conservatism- the great Western Church virtue: ‘it is not opportune to’, ‘it is not yet the right time’, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, ‘it may be appropriate to have a period of reflection’. Often used by the powerful to stifle dissent….or valuing those ‘in’ over those ‘outside’
Conservatism and caution are needed in our churches, but also alongside resolution and taking risks. Watching this from another denomination (Methodist) it just makes the church look, well, daft (I tried to be polite)….you’ve agreed something; now do it!
Now….back to lurking….
There seem to be two arguments against the ordination of women, one is that it is not put forward in scripture, the other is that we must wait until the whole church is agreed. The first falls on the example that Paul forbade a woman to speak in church or hold authority so we should get rid of all those women readers and churchwardens. The second falls on the example of the RC church setting 2 new doctrines in the 50s, they did not wait for everyone else so why should we? I suppose that the reply to number 2 is that they are the only real church, well anyone who thinks that needs to remember Christ’s ‘by their fruits etc.’ Let’s just do it and get on with feeding the hungry and proclaiming the gospel.