Hey folks,

Here's something I recently posted on my blog about
this issue.  I have to admit, I am somewhat open on
this issue - what women should and should not do
during worship.  It is worthwhile studying this issue.

That said, I think it is somewhat reckless for
individual parishes and priests to permit women to
serve in liturgical roles when the issue is not agreed
upon.  Doing so could cause a weaker brother to
stumble.  I'd like to see some concensus on the issue
before anyone permits these things.

Blessings,
JGA+

(from my blog...)

Recently, I had an interesting discussion with a
person about "diversifying" the leadership in churches
(and this person's home church in particular - not an
Anglican parish). As our discussion went on, it became
apparant to me that this person was equating
leadership and ministry entirely with the ordained
ministry. In his mind, women should be "ordained"
because they have a right to be leaders and ministers
(in a generic sense of the word) as do men.

I suppose this was interesting to me because the more
rigorous opponents of a male-only pastorate/priesthood
usually cite clericalism (i.e. the priest/pastor does
everything) as being one of the great evils of
Christianity... a holdover from Medieval times. But
what was so intriguing was that advocates of women's
"ordination" are actually perpetuating this evil of
clericalism and taking it to new extremes. The person
I was talking to seemed to think that one had to be
ordained, and lead sacramental acts, to take positions
of leadership, service, and ministry in the local and
larger church! That is clericalism at its most
extreme. In reality, one does not have be ordained to
"minister" in the name of the Lord (sacramental acts
excluded, obviously). We are all called to serve and
minister, and to help bring God's Kingdom into greater
realization here on earth in whatever way we can.

Gentley, I tried to point out that Mother Angelica on
EWTN is a perfect example of someone who has
leadership over a lot of things (a global Catholic
television network - that's a pretty big deal), yet
she is not ordained, and is even opposed to
"ordaining" women. There are the multitude of
educators, charity providers, political leaders, etc.
who all serve God without being ordained. The list of
women who minister in the name of the Lord without
being ordained could go on forever. It is not required
to be ordained to serve God. In fact laity are
required to serve God by virtue of their baptism and
confirmation as much as the ordained are. Now
obviously, the church has by divine institution a
sacramental priesthood and ministry; that goes without
saying. But I think to suggest that one haas to be
ordained to serve God, start and lead ministries,
witness to the truth of Jesus Christ to people, etc.
is false. To suggest that is simply to promote clericalism.

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