Women and Holy Orders

CHAPTER IV

Ecumenical Considerations

37 Recent interest in the question of the ordination of women derives from two sources. One is the theological consideration of the nature of the Church’s ministry and of the respective roles in it of ordained and non-ordained members. The other is the theological consideration of the relationships between men and women in general, and their complementary roles in life and in the Church. These two interests have been prosecuted within the World Council of Churches, whose survey The Ordination of Women (Geneva, 1964) amply illustrates not only the formidable difficulties of relationship between the Churches which the variety of practice among them may raise, but—even more clearly—the difficulties attending the very study and discussion of the question. Most studies, in short, give abundant evidence of the way in which prejudice creates its own presuppositions, which in turn predispose arguments to inevitable conclusions.

38 In 1958, out of 168 member-Churches of the World Council, 48 reported that they admitted women to ‘ the full ministry’, 9 to ‘ partial or occasional ministry ’; 90 Churches did not admit them at all; 21 Churches did not answer the enquiry.

39 In Switzerland, where a majority of Churches admit them, the tradition of cantonal forbearance is now under strain as the majority bring pressure on the minority to conform—not, however, as a matter of pure theological principle or of ecclesiastical necessity, but as a co-incidence of the campaign to secure ‘equality’ for women in all things civil, social and political.

40 The Lutheran tradition admits a variety of doctrine and practice concerning ministerial order; Lutheran Churches are much more consistent in their close, and, in places, subordinate, relationship to the State. The possibility of woman ministers has been theoretically disputable since the Reformation. In the twentieth century women have been ordained, years ago and without apparent difficulty, in Denmark and in Norway; a decision not to ordain them was taken, again without difficulty, recently in Finland; and an actual ordination of women in Sweden has produced deep cleavage and widespread bitterness in that Church and nation.

41 The initiative for the admission of women to the ordained ministry in Sweden came from the Government, and for purposes of Government; it was at first rejected by the Church Assembly, then enacted by Parliament, and afterwards ratified by a new Church Assembly elected ad hoc. The first ordinations of women were in 1960. By 1965, eleven women had been ordained to the priesthood; and the Church of Sweden has lost a far higher number of men ordinands who withdrew from ordination, and of clergymen who laid down the practice of their ministry, because of the ordination of women. There is no evidence that the controversy has lost any of its bitterness, or is within sight of an end. In England the Convocations acted at once to exclude women ordained in Sweden from the practice of their ministry in churches of the Church of England; the Archbishop of Canterbury had, indeed, warned the Archbishop of Uppsala, before the event, that the ordination of women to the priesthood would introduce ‘ a cause of embarrassment and dispute between the two Churches’.

42 In the Roman Catholic Church, where the terms of the canon law explicitly restrict ordination to men, and where ‘ the unwavering tradition and practice of the Church make it clear that the male sex is required ’ for ordination, there is a mild theological interest in the question, prompted by the beginning of what may be called, without discourtesy, a ‘ feminist’ movement within the Church. Theological speculation is more ‘ open’ than the canonical prescription. While, no doubt, theologians could be found who would maintain the thesis that a woman is, ipso facto, inherently incapable of receiving holy orders, others, with considerable authority, would argue that the decision, whether to ordain women or not, lies entirely within the competence of the Church; and that if the Church decided so to ordain them, the ordination would be valid. They would add that there is no likelihood, in the foreseeable future, that the Church would so decide. As for the practice of non-Roman Churches, it would be regrettable, and a a set-back to unity, if a major historical Church were to act unilaterally in admitting women to the ministry. The acceptance by some other Churches of women into their ministries would hardly be accorded the significance of a major impediment to unity because the only kind of unity with them foreseeable at present is a loose sort of federation in which there would be a great deal of diversity, even of anomaly, to be tolerated. In short, the question of the ordination of women—even to no more than a permanent diaconate—is seen as one of very little importance; of far less importance than that of the function of the laity as such in the Church, and of a genuine lay ministry as complementary to that of the clergy.

43 The ordination of women to the sacred ministry is utterly alien to the tradition and ministerial theology of Orthodoxy; there is no evidence of any wish to challenge the tradition. A firm distinction is drawn between the office of the deaconess (while it survived) and that of the deacon; he is a member of the sacred hierarchy; she was not.

44 Nearer at home, opinions are divided and indecision prevails. In France the Eglise Reformee, in May, 1965, decided (after many years of indecision) to admit women to the ministry on the same conditions as those of men; but the majority in favour was a narrow one. In Scotland, the General Assembly is prepared to enact permissive powers, subject to ratification in the presbyteries, for congregations to elect women among their elders (i.e. lay assistants to their ministers) should they so wish.(1) But on the admission of women to the ministry, the Panel on Doctrine, to which the Assembly remitted the question in 1960 remains divided. The presbyteries in 1965 were also divided. A petition to the General Assembly from a woman seeking ordination, made in 1963, remains unanswered.

45 In England, the Congregational Union admitted women to its ‘full ministry of Word and Sacraments’ in 1917; it has now thirty-four full-time woman ministers in service, out of sixty on its ministerial list; it reports with satisfaction on their ministry in the smaller churches to which, almost exclusively, they are called; it reports also ‘ lingering hesitations’, and some refusal to accept them, among congregations and the local clergy. The Baptist Union followed soon after; but the number of women on its ministerial list has always been very small; the Deaconess Group offered an alternative ministry, and efforts are being made to make this more acceptable to a new generation of women with theological and pastoral abilities.

46 The Methodist Conference, from 1933 to 1945, passed resolutions approving the admission of women to the ministry in principle, but the synods gave only divided support. In 1948 Conference reversed its position; but in 1960 it issued a Statement on Ordination which is now interpreted as containing nothing that would exclude a woman from ordination on the ground of her sex alone. Yet the Committee set up by Conference to consider the question can only give a divided answer: it finds no absolute theological impediment to the ordination of women; yet it finds little evidence of desire for it in the Methodist Church, and it has become increasingly aware of practical problems attending the proposal, including the difficulty of placing woman ministers should they be ordained. A Report from this Methodist Committee has been remitted by Conference for study at Circuit and District level.

47 One aspect of Methodist practice does, however, invite particular attention in view of the conversations now in progress on the union of the Methodist Church and the Church of England. A number of Deaconesses (there were thirty-eight in 1962) already hold a dispensation from Conference ‘ to give the sacrament’ in the societies of which they have pastoral charge—a dispensation given in respect of the pastoral charge, but not given to deaconesses as such. This practice and its significance may well have to be considered by those charged with the conduct of negotiations between the two Churches.

48 Within the Anglican Communion there have been two occasions which indicated the strength of divisive feeling which the ordination of women to holy orders can evoke. The first was the ordination of a woman to the priesthood by the Bishop of Hong Kong and South China in 1944—an action which was repudiated by the English Primates as ultra vires; the Lambeth Conference of 1948 voted negatively on a proposal which would have permitted a ministry of this sort for an ‘ experimental’ period of twenty years. The second occasion arose in 1965 when the Bishop of California proposed to ordain a deaconess as deacon, in order to put beyond doubt her status in holy orders, according to the Bishop’s interpretation of a Canon of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. as amended in 1964. After immediate domestic protests, and a reported warning from the Vatican Secretariat that such a course would set up an ‘ insurmountable obstacle’ to unity, the Bishop referred his proposal to the House of Bishops of his Church. The House resolved against the proposal, and declared expressly that deaconesses should not be permitted to administer the elements of the Holy Communion.

49 Conclusions which may be drawn from this survey are:

(a) That although the division between Churches which accept and Churches which reject woman ministers no longer corresponds to the division between non-episcopal and episcopal Churches, yet resistance to woman ministers coincides with what theologians term a high doctrine of the Church, the ministry and the sacraments, and the issue is more divisive where these high doctrines prevail. It would be divisive in the Church of England.

(b) The admission of women to the priesthood in the Church of England, if carried into effect, must be expected to strain relationships with the Roman Catholic Church and particularly with the Orthodox Church.

(c) In the present century all Christian communions have become far more conscious of the nature of the Church and its ministry as a theological question and therefore, because of the sharper consciousness of doctrinal issues, the introduction de novo of woman ministers into most Churches now might be more difficult and divisive than it was a generation or more ago.

1 On May 25th, 1966, the General Assembly agreed to the admission of women as elders of the Church on the same terms as men, if kirk sessions wanted to have them.

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