Must human beings have male parts in order to be eligible to serve God as a member of the upper administration of His Church? Or, it put it more directly, can women be bishops? What does God want? Add why?
Well, we’ve had some interesting conversations here the past several days around the subject of What God Wants (Atria Books, available from any online bookstore, including Amazon.com). And — probably not coincidentally with all of this — a brouhaha developed the day before yesterday between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England what what God wants…in this case, regarding the gender of His messengers.
Of course, the Catholic Church has had a prohibition against female priests since the beginning, as we all know, whereas the Anglican Church a number of years ago lifted its similar ban. Then that rogue British church also announced that it was accepting openly gay men as bishops. All of this pretty much scandalized the Catholic Church heirarchy, but for the most part it looked the other way and spoke openly of reconiliation and closer workings between the two churches.
But now the Anglicans appear to have done too far. The Vatican issued a formal statement on Tuesday saying it “regrets” a decision by the Church of England’s governing body, taken the day before, to allow the ordination of women as bishops.
A report on the controversy from CNN says that “the move by the Anglican Church’s General Synod ‘is a rift to the apostolic tradition’ of ordaining only men as bishops, the Vatican said in a statement, and is another obstacle to reconciliation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics.”
“This decision will have consequences on the dialogue which had brought good fruits,” the Vatican statement said, according to the CNN report.
The General Synod of the Church of England passed a resolution Monday night that allows women to become bishops. The CNN report said that it acted “over the objections of traditionalists who argued that Jesus only wanted men in leadership positions.”
This falls right into the discussion we’ve been having here since last week about What God Wants. So now we have to ask another blazing question. Is it God’s requirement that each of His servants in the clergy (or, at least, in the upper reaches of that clergy) have a penis? WHat if they have a vagina? Can people with that kind of physical construction nevertheless serve God in such authoritative capacities?
CNN says that “Some traditionalists have threatened to abandon the Anglican Church for the Roman Catholic Church if women become bishops. Several hundred Anglican priests made that move when women were first ordained 16 years ago.”
Apparently, some folks feel very strongly about this.
“The theological debate over women bishops has centered over the question ‘What would Jesus do?’ The traditionalists argued that bishops must be men, as were Jesus and his apostles,” the CNN report said.
“Christina Rees, with the pro-women lobby Women and the Church, described what was at stake as ‘an acceptance by the Church of England of women on equal terms as men in the ordained ministries’,” the CNN report went on.
The Vatican apparently finds that a novel concept. Too novel, in fact. Woman are not to be treated or accepted on equal terms with men in the ordained ministries, according to official Catholicism. Why? Because, presumably, this is not what God wants.
All of this raises the question: What kind of a God do we hav e, anyway?
This is the question I have been asking all week. And I intend to keep asking it throughout this month of this blog. What kind of a God do we have, anyway?
Why is God so dead set against having women lead His people as members of His clergy? Or, to ask an even bigger question, Who says that God is a ‘He’?
Was it men who told us that God is a man? Was it men who told us that only men could serve as priests and bishops? And only white men at that? (I refer to the now outdated, but not-that-long-ago strictly enforced prohibition against black men in the priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latater-day Saints — a church which declares itself to be based upon the teachings of Jesus.)
And while we’re about it, can we take a look at What God Wants with regard to Violence and Sex? I mean, what are God’s attitudes about that? (We’ll explore that on Monday.)
So now, since we have a lot a Catholics who visit Beliefnet, I’m wondering if any of them would be kind enough to help me understand What God Wants with regard to the gender of His/Her messengers and ministers. Anybody have any ideas? Any Catholics — or Catholic clergy — able and willing to comment on this? Help us here. Please…and I mean this sincerely…enlighten us. What DOES God want? With regard to who shall send and bring God’s message to the world, what DOES God want?
Is it okay to be gay? It is okay to be female?
Somebody help me here. i really want to understand.