The Issue that won’t go away
By Canon Gary L’Hommedieu, Virtueonline
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
I began writing about Women’s Ordination (WO) as "the issue that won’t go away" when I noticed how it keeps coming up in discussions among the clergy. Many who are pro-WO see the issue as placing them among the "anointed", to use Thomas Sowell’s expression–that is, among the manifestly correct. The present leadership of the Episcopal Church see their Church’s stand on WO as certifying them among the architects of liberation now assuming their rightful role in managing the new world order.
Those who are opposed to or express misgivings about WO are rarely met with debate but rather with some form of ad hominem attack–either moralistic or emotionally charged rhetoric, if not outright incrimination. Such an uncivil reflex action suggests something unwholesome lurking beneath the surface of the WO issue on the part of its champions, who apparently are not as secure in their convictions as they would like to appear.
I rejected the theological arguments in favor of WO years ago when I found them to be un- and even anti-theological. At the time WO was sweeping through the churches as part of a cultural whirlwind. Very few of my colleagues are aware that I hold the position I do. I personally like and respect most of my female colleagues in Central Florida and throughout TEC. It pains me that on some level I am rejecting them personally and that they cannot help, at some level, taking my rejection personally.
I am speaking out on the subject now because, alas, I believe my position (which is certainly not mine alone) happens to be the truth. The church’s recent drift into wholesale revision largely rests on its accommodation of the method that led first to the acceptance of and then to the necessity for women priests. Other truths have been sacrificed in order to make space for this one, until now we have no basis for any positive doctrine. The present series of articles is an attempt to restate some fundamentals of doctrine.
I believe a positive case can be made for the male priesthood apart from joining a negative chorus against it. Furthermore, I believe this is a case whose time has come. My belief stands in contradiction to the assumption by liberals and conservatives alike that Jesus himself would have chosen female apostles if only he had truly been born in the fullness of time–namely, in our time, with our unobstructed view of all reality. Rather, I think a case can be made that the issue of male headship–the general category under which the priesthood falls–for the first time stands out as a doctrine apart from the cultural landscape of what are called "traditional societies".
THE OPEN AND SHUT CASE THAT KEEPS SPRINGING OPEN
I begin this second essay on "the issue that won’t go away" with a reference to the principle text taken in support of WO. I observe in the popular exegesis of this text the same nervous affirmation I have observed among WO advocates in both liberal and conservative camps.
For Part 1 Read here
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