'If you consecrate woman as bishops or if you don't consecrate women as bishops you will not endanger your spiritual security,' said Rev. Gregory Venables, a representative of the Anglican Church in South America.
'It's an issue which ... needs to be talked about so we can find how we can agree to work together because we agree on the salvation issues. The ordination of women is not an issue which will separate us from God,' he said.
'In the Anglican understanding, a bishop is a bishop of the whole catholic church, meaning that person should be acceptable in all places that the catholic church is,' [George]Conger told Christianity Today. '[The ACNA] can live with women being at the local level of priest, because a woman priest in New York doesn’t do anything to the people in Fort Worth, Texas, who think it’s contrary to Scripture.'
'Bishops serve the whole church, and if the church is not of one mind, then it’s not appropriate for women to be bishops,' the Rev. Boline told Duin. 'The global south has shown us a model of keeping to the main thing, while not being of one mind.'
Since both human sexuality and the authority of Scripture are so central to ACNA’s formation in the first place, it seems unlikely that the issue of women priests won’t at some point cause the newly formed partnership to fracture. But Duncan stressed the importance of keeping unity — for the time being.
6 comments:
“because we agree on the salvation issues” said Rev. Gregory Venables
How can it be said that the groups with in the ANCA agree on the salvations issues when we are still fighting about women’s ordination?
Ordination is a salvation issue! To take the stance that it is not shows the rest of us Catholics how far from the Catholic faith the ANCA and most Anglicans have fallen.
To teach that it is okay in any way to ordain a woman as a deacon, priest, bishop is a perversion of Holy Scripture and of Holy Church Tradition. The problem is that the Anglican Church has forgotten what the Church is. We have been so accepting of other Christian faiths that we have allowed them not just to join in our celebrating of the Holy Communion; but to bring with them there non Catholic faith that has infiltrated the very essence of our Anglican Faith. We must guard our faith like a mother lion guards her cubs, or our young will fall to what look new and sounds different. The evangelical, charismatic, protestant, anti-Catholic church has a lot of flashy lights and big sound with fancy drums and guitars but lacks the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the lineage of the Apostles.
Let us not mix words it is sinful to have or to allow a woman priest/bishop and it should be stopped. There is a place for women in the Church, but that is not there place. God has called women to be great in there time and in there understanding, He has not called them to a place of ordination. We are to honor the great and holy women that have gone before and will come again. Let us praise them and glorify them as Christ would want, but let us not break Holy Tradition set in place by the Apostles picked by the hand of Christ.
This battle is lost – all we can do is round the wagons in a circle and exist within our respective Anglo-Catholic communities. The Anglican Communion will continue to fission and in the end, the majority will ordain women – the sign o’ the times. As Fr. Chad recently relayed in his Church's monthly journal, Orthodox Christians are in for perilous times.
read this comment regarding the other side's pessimism for WO in ACNA:
http://covenant-communion.net/index.php/forums/viewthread/662/
"I’m also concerned for the women of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and CANA. (I think those are the only two “dioceses”/groups that ordain women in ACNA.) Their scope of ministry has shrunk considerably. I have a sense that they will be slowly pushed out and replaced by men. I just don’t think Bishop Duncan and “Bishop” Minns are going to be fighting the fight for women’s ordination among their own ACNA membership. We’ll see though."
It boils down to politics, the respective strength of various sides and parties. The good news is there are many conservatives in ACNA, many more than had been in TEC percent-wise. Unlike TEC, ACNA is fighting over the question of WO! That means a lot. In TEC the debate was a long way over. But ACNA it's hot. The Continuum has perhaps wisely chosen to stay apart from the quarrel. OCA may be able to effect some pressure from the outside plus dialogue? In a surprising recent statement from Bp. Wantland, TEC, even he called WO "lesbianism". Didn't God say he's spare a cit for the sake of even 10 righteous men? Perhaps this is a time for charity rather than indifference? Perhaps all catholic Anglicans should be intercessaries like Abraham? But most likely this will be a process. They won't, as a body, either explode or change overnight.
Most good, like most evil, doesn't occur or fully blossom in a fortnight. It tends to increases in time. "A little leaven"? Can we help the increase the good yeast? This is also what I pray for...
Fr. Chad,
I'm a bit confused, especially considering the post immediately prior this one titled 'Wise Counsel from a Dear Friend' (which I heartily agree with). Given that the APA is a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas, isn't this man your primatial patron? How does that work?
Excellent question: Archbishop Venables personally serves FACA as primatial patron, providing guidance to the organisation and serving as a liaison between the member jurisdictions and the Anglican Communion. FACA is not bound to the theological declarations or assertions of His Grace or of any individual primate or bishop of the Anglican Communion. His ministry is one facilitation for dialogue and cooperation. He does not exercise any formal 'magisterial role' for FACA or for any ecclesial communion outside the Province of the Southern Cone.
Hello All,
What a lively, albeit respectful, conversation. I have a couple of thoughts on the issue...(1)Perhaps I am just quibbling over semantics, but a woman cannot be a priest without a sex change. The best she can hope for in a strictly linguistic sense is to be a priestess.
(2)I think that His Grace mistakenly believes the issue of women's ordination is one of church unity and order, not something touching the more substantive dogmatic questions like the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. What I am afraid he fails to grasp is that without a valid priesthood, there are no valid sacraments. While I know that God's mercy and boundless perfection can overcome our imperfections in worshipping him, we are called to strive for perfection still...and that includes adhering to the apostolic order as our Lord instituted it. God Bless, Russ
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