Only (Straight) Men Allowed

It would seem that the Anglican Church is set to have another debate about whether to catch up with other denominations, except the Holy See in Rome, and lift the glass ceiling. For 16 years now women have been allowed to be parish priests but with no hope of progress on the career ladder within the church.

In the same time there have been female Moderators of the Church of Scotland and leaders of the Methodists. Yet there seems no certain move for the Anglican Church because of the threat of the Anglo-Catholics either removing themselves or their wealth from the Anglican communion, or merely causing such an uproar to make the who move nearly unworkable.

Of course the other wing of the Church has recently scored by once again halting the possible elevation of Jeffrey John to the Bishopric of Southwark.

So the only senior post that a women, and presumably a gay man can seemingly hold in the Church of England is that of Supreme Governor. Of course to qualify for that you have to be the first born son, or daughter thereafter/instead of the previous monarch or their closest familial alternative. Not much hope for many then, unless a sensible decision is reached this week over women bishops.

Women Bishops But Not Fully Empowered

On a chess board the two Bishops are dressed in the same colour, start from roughly the same place, seem to have the same focus, but they never meet. The reason is of course that one uses the white square and the other's the black. The King and Queen, between them have the same basic move but the King can only move one square in any direction and the Queen can go as far as she pleases.

The Church of England is planning to legislate so that female bishops will be more like a hamstrung King that a fully fledged Bishop when their ascent to the Bishop's seats comes to be some point after 2014. For yes there are moves afoot to replace a stained glass ceiling in the way of those female vicars that are good enough for being a full participant in the House of Bishops. The Church of England has been listening to submissions from many opposed to the ordination of woman bishops and looking for the need of their special care when the inevitable comes to pass.

Ruth McCurry chairs a group supporting the ordination of woman bishops and sees worrying signs of what is happening:

"You will have a group of people who don't recognise each other as bishops. What kind of church do they think they're in when they are not in communion with each other? You are legislating this schism into existence and you are creating a two-tier church, a category of second-class bishops. People could refuse to receive communion from Rowan [Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury] if he were to ever ordain a woman as a bishop.

"Unfortunately I have come to terms with the fact that you cannot have women bishops without discrimination, lots of men will be discriminated against too, and this poor committee is trying to find an elusive formula that will keep everyone happy. They can't."

So is the Church of England really legislating itself into a schism? Quite possibly. However, other denominations have not just had the equivalent of women bishops but some have even had female leaders. Moderators of the General Assembly here in Scotland and the like. The fact that some in the Church of England are still so pent up on the gender of someone rather than their ability to perform the duties is a travesty in the 21st Century. Without women priests there would be a lot of vacate parishes, or overstretched male vicars covering extra flocks. To deny them the same career track as their male counterparts, or deny them part of the duties upon promotion, is something that the Church leadership should not allow.

Having brought female vicars into being the Church must recognise that the cream will rise to the top. As in all walks of live and must be allowed to do so unhindered and unfettered.

Rocester's Rant before Retirement - Or is it Rupturement?

Yesterday I read in Patrick Hannan's book A Useful Fiction:

"As for those Dawkins opposes [religions] , it's difficult to escape the conclusion that, far from concerning themselves with central questions of belief and the way in which they should shape the lives of their congregations, Christian churches have become almost completely preoccupied by disputes about the sexual practises of the clergy."

Well yesterday I was also reading about Scott Rennie recieving a ovation when he was installed as the new Minister of Queen's Cross Kirk in Aberdeen and Nick Clegg calling for more gay rights. Then this morning we have one of the prime examples of a reason for the disestablishment of the Church of England Dr Dr Michael Nazir-Ali Bishop of Rochester, whose voting record on gay rights to the general public is appalling, proved Hannan's point but taking it down to the flock and beyond.

The Bishop, who is stepping down in September 10 years early, made the front page of the Telegraph after saying:

"We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.

"People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.

"The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.

"We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed."

It also appears that the Bishop, who didn't succeed Lord Carey to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, is also on the verge of setting up a Church within the Church of those opposed to the line taken by Archbishop Rowen Williams. Thus he is fulfilling warnings given by the Dean of Southwark Colin Slee that this was the true intent of his early retirement.

As Caron pointed out last weekend the views of the Bishop of Rochester thankfully aren't the view of all senior Anglicans.

Labour Attack Bishops For Speaking the Truth

OK I've attack the church a little bit recently but when they point out that the divide between rich and poor is getting wider that is something that the Lib Dems have been pointing out to Labour for a while.

The Church is often a good judge of how the poorest are getting on as they are usually behind, involved in running or knowledgeable in the conditions of such. So when they say there is a growing divide not aided by the debt culture that is being encouraged they should be listened to.

However, Labour in what is now their usual behaviour have ignored facts and evidence that is contrary to their narrative. The five bishops had branded the government morally corrupt for encouraging a credit culture and making people live beyond their means. The fact that even government parlance of giving credits rather than benefits heightens the acceptance of credit as an acceptable way of living. The Bishops also pointed out that while the bankers have received large bail outs, the government has been doing little to help the less well off in comparison, the government being tight fisted in what it offers the people who actually suffer.

Facing the government itself has borrowed over and over to gets itself out of difficulties far from being a prudent hoarder saver of wealth when available. See the government likes to talk the talk on poverty, but apart from actions in the first four years of Labour governance that has been all they have done. They have been all talk and failing to walk the walk in successive budgets and plans since.

Women Bishops

I'm glad that the Anglican Church has finally caught up with other denominations and voted yesterday to allow women to become Bishops. We've already had female Presbyterian Moderators, female Prime Minister etc so we may eventually have a female Archbishop of Canterbury.

I'm also glad that the concessions for super-bishops and dioceses for those opposed to female bishops was turned down. The women ministers I have met are every bit as good and able at shepherding their flock as men are, many of them more so. There should not be concessions to those opposed to them you only need to point out Ruth, Esther or Naomi in the bible to show that women have always had ability. Only the cream will rise to the top as Bishops but that is the same in every profession. The possibility is that the Church may well be one profession where now that the glass ceiling has been lifted it is actually easier for women to reach a greater equality at the top than business or politics.

The work-life balance in the church is a lot easier than a lot of professions as home and work are closely situated. Of course I also know the counter argument that as a result they never seem to be separated out, but even the most trying of times ministers in the church will know that their family is not that far away at the end of the day.

The church of England is moving into the 21st Century and realising that it has to utilise the best potential that it has at its disposal. All steps in the right direction are good news.