Preaching acceptance

Jul 9 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LET us pray for the Church of England – currently in a state of turmoil over the ordination of women bishops.

In Britain, a quarter of serving Anglican priests are female, including two deans of the cathedrals in Leicester and Salisbury. Given those facts, it is crazy to think that the inevitable process of women becoming bishops can be stopped in its tracks. And why should it?

People outside the Church tend to assume that there must be theological difficulties about women being ordained.

But in fact the General Synod ruled in 1975 there were no theological barriers or fundamental objections.

In most areas of life, women manage, teach, lead, guide, heal, negotiate, budget, organise and plan as well as assist, help, follow, care and work with others.

For most people it is simply not an issue whether a man or a woman takes the lead, what matters is that it is the person most gifted for the role. And so it should be for the Anglican church.

Our own Vicar of Huddersfield has a stake in this, not particularly because she wants to be a bishop but because she is a woman.

The Rev Catherine Ogle tells in today’s Examiner that having women bishops spells out a special message in a world where many women are still second-class citizens, many on the receiving end of prejudice and violence.

She is right. The so-called traditionalists need to have a hard think about why they cannot view all people as equal.

Or, to out it in religious terms, they need to accept they are there to promote friendship with God and between all people.