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Theology Wales: the Ordination of Women to the Episcopate

 

 

Full contents:

Guest Editor's Introduction
- Rev'd Canon Dr Raymond Bayley

The Admission of Women to the Episcopate
- A Statement by the Bench of Bishops

Women Bishops in the Church in Wales
- Canon Mary Stallard

Learn from the past and build for the future
- Rev'd Joanna Penberthy

Male Episcopacy
- Rev'd Canon Peter Russell Jones

A Noble Task
- Bishop David Thomas

Empirical Theology and Women Bishops
- Rev'd Professor Leslie J Francis

Women Bishops in the Church in Wales: How would we Cope?

Mary Stallard

In this article the Rev’d Mary Stallard reflects on her first meeting with a woman bishop, and asks questions about where women’s ministry began and how its development might affect the Church in Wales. She looks at some of the ways that are open to the church in exploring how we can live with a variety of views on women and the episcopacy. Mary says why she believes the time is ripe for the Church in Wales to affirm women’s ministry by passing the necessary legislation that would allow for the possibility for women to become bishops in our church.

I met a woman bishop for the first time this spring when I was at a worldwide meeting of Anglican women in New York. We were at the United Nations, where we were the largest Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) to be learning and lobbying at the Commission on the Status of Women. The participation of Anglican women had been organised, and paid for, by Anglican Women’s Empowerment (“AWE”) an American Church group who exploded many of my preconceptions and prejudices about American people and the American Episcopal Church (ECUSA) by their gentle generosity.

Meeting Cathy Roskam, Bishop Suffragan of New York, at this event was both a very moving and a surprisingly ordinary occasion.

I remember the feeling of mild shock and anxiety when I suddenly realised, on arrival at the Church, that the Eucharist I was attending had a woman bishop as its celebrant. I mentally kicked myself for not having made the connections and realised that this would be a likely scenario. I felt as if I needed a moment to prepare myself. It may sound surprising but I’m a woman priest with some ambivalent feelings about women bishops. This is not because of any theological or ecclesiological concerns but rather because I have always suspected that it is very hard for women to have the freedom to make a distinctive contribution in a very male dominated and hierarchical system of authority. I wonder what episcopal ministry does to the women who are called to this kind of lonely role and how effective this can be in helping the whole church to grow and develop in its understanding of God’s work of reconciliation. (The Anglican Communion has experienced the episcopacy of women for 28 years now. In that time there have only been 16 women bishops world-wide, 5 of whom have now retired, this is a tiny percentage of Anglican bishops).

However, at that moment, there simply was no time to reflect, I met Bishop Cathy and it was a graceful and joyful moment. Cathy is a diminutive, white haired, motherly woman with a kind smile and the gentle, reassuring wisdom and sense of prayerfulness that you meet in the very best Christian leaders, whether they are lay or ordained. She had a great sense of presence and she preached a powerful and engaging sermon. Cathy celebrated the Eucharist with dignity and after the service and later in the evening she greeted everyone who had been there making them feel welcome. She wore her episcopacy lightly, laughing, joking and showing the kind of skill in getting to know people and putting them at their ease that many good priests exemplify. It was obvious to me that she knows the clergy of her diocese well and also that they seemed proud of her and of her ministry.

The American women priests that I met in New York seemed just like any other clergy -
a real variety of personalities who came from a wide range of backgrounds and traditions. The one striking difference perhaps was that there were many more young women than I am used to meeting amongst groups of clergy in Wales. These women seemed empowered and hopeful and they appeared to have roles in every part of their church’s ministry.

They were realistic and sensitive about the challenges that their church faces at this time but they were wonderfully upbeat about the future. I also met a great range of lay-women of all ages who are involved in the life of the American Church. They too impressed me by their joyfulness about their church and their commitment to give generously towards its work. Again it was noticeable that there were many young women taking an active interest in the church. I wondered if having women as bishops is one of the factors that helps American Christian women to be more confident in exploring their vocation and in offering themselves in service in the diversity of Christian ordained ministries. If this is so, could it do the same for us?

Women spiritual leaders: A matter of oversight?

We sometimes overlook the fact that women have always played important and diverse roles in the story of our faith. We often tend to read back into the Biblical accounts of the early church, assumptions about patterns of ministry with which we are familiar today. We sometimes forget that women have always had an influence in shaping communities, even if their roles have not been recognised or appreciated.

A careful reading of the Gospels tells us quite a lot about how God used the gifts of women in shaping the nurture and development of our faith. We know a little and can guess much about the contribution made by Mary to Jesus’ growth and spiritual formation. In Luke’s Gospel we read how as an adult Jesus depended upon the gifts and hospitality of Joanna and a group of women who supported, maintained and enabled his preaching ministry (Luke 8v3). In John’s Gospel Martha of Bethany makes a profession of faith to Jesus before he brings her brother Lazarus back to life. Three of the Gospels record how women stayed at the foot of the cross when Jesus was dying and John tells us that Mary Magdalene was sent by the risen Jesus to take the good news of the resurrection not to women and children but to the male disciples who had accompanied Jesus throughout his ministry (John 20:17-18).

As the small group of disciples grew following the resurrection and became a community later called “church” women continued to play significant roles. The earliest congregations met in house churches and we know that at least some of these were in the houses of women. We read about Lydia (Acts 16:14-15), Mary the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12), Chloe (I Corinthians 1:11), Nympha (Colossians 4:16) and Junia (Romans 16:7) [both of whom appear to have had their names corrected to the masculine forms of “Nymphas” and “Junias” by editors and translators who seem to have found it unlikely or improper that women should have been in positions of authority.] Prisca or Priscilla is an evangelist (Romans 16:3-5 and Acts 18) and Phoebe (Romans 16:1) is described as a patron or benefactor using the word prostatis which is also used to describe the tasks of a bishop, deacon or elder in 1 Timothy 3:4-5 and 5:17.
Those who have studied the texts in detail, find that the emerging church in the first century was diverse and varied and that women appear to have participated in ministry alongside men in a diverse range of roles. 

There is very little written about the office of bishop in the New Testament, the word for bishop “episcopos” appears to refer to an administrator or “overseer” in the earliest Christian communities. The Acts of the Apostles and the epistles seem to suggest that in the hundred years following the death of Jesus the roles and titles that have now developed into the priesthood and the episcopacy were originally much more fluid and even interchangeable. St Paul exhorted Christian leaders or elders (presbyters) in Ephesus to “keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops [or overseers], to shepherd the Church of God”(Acts 20:28). It is only in the later New Testament writings that we begin to see a more defined pattern emerging, so that in Titus 1:7f  a list is given of the characteristics required of a bishop:  He must be:

a man whose children are believers, blameless… not arrogant.. or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness,.. master of himself, upright, holy and self-controlled.. holding firm to the sure word as taught,..  able to give instruction in sound doctrine… and also to confute those who contradict it.

During the first few centuries of Christian history the office of Bishop grew in importance gradually becoming central to the dominant structure of authority in the church of bishops, priests and deacons.

We do not know if there were ever any female bishops, there is some evidence to suggest that it is possible that there might have been one or two. What we do know, however, is that the structures that gradually emerged came to be largely male dominated and that these are the structures that survived and thrived. One reason for the success of the male led church may have been because this was the familiar structure of leadership in secular society in the early centuries and this would have been valuable for the church in helping to appeal to potential new converts. Further changes to patterns of church leadership over the centuries seem to have been driven by the missionary imperative. Women in some places and cultures became teachers and deacons, mainly ministering amongst other women. Some women had positions of leadership as Abbesses and Prioresses.

Meanwhile in the world of secular work, women have held positions of responsibility and authority in just about every walk of life. Women manage, teach, lead, guide, heal, negotiate, budget, organise and plan as well as assist, help, follow and work with others. We must not forget too that, of course, women have always exercised informal leadership through their influence at home and in friendships and serving in a whole variety of humble and responsible roles.

Throughout its history women have offered their gifts to the work of the church in informal and voluntary roles as well as in recognised positions. There is much important evidence from the very earliest Christian communities that tells that us that women have always made a contribution to the leadership of the church even if their role has not been formally celebrated or valued.

The issue about opening the episcopacy to women is important because it says something vital about how we believe God calls, gifts and relates to all of humanity.  Not to ordain women, or indeed any other group or category of people, is to suggest that they stand differently in God’s sight.  It is fundamental to our faith that all people, men and women are made in God’s image.  We believe that Christ who became one of us died to save all of us and that each one of us is called to be part of his body on earth, which is the church.  All the baptised strive to represent Christ to others and a ministry of oversight (in the sense of shepherding) can be exercised by any who have been gifted for this task, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability or any other category that defines us as distinctive in the eyes of other people.

The earliest Christians had to learn something about this in the infancy of the Church. Peter and the other early Christian leaders had to learn about God’s desire for all to be included when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Gentiles as well as upon Jewish people near the beginning of the Church’s formation. Peter changed his mind about accepting Gentiles as full believers and proclaimed, “Truly God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34b) and as Paul famously wrote in Galatians (3:28) he too had to learn that “with Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free, ..male or female;  we are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Years ago, in the infancy of the Movement for the Ordination of Women, The Rev’d Dr Una Kroll made a famous call to the Church of England: “Either ordain us or don’t baptise us!” It was a hard-hitting challenge that made some people feel uncomfortable, but it locates a really important question that we still have to resolve, about how we release the gifts and full potential of all who are baptised. This is what we are considering in the process of seeking to open up the whole of the ordained ministry in our church to women as well as to men.

One of the very gracious gifts already to this debate in Wales, has been the generous recognition, by some who have struggled to recognise the priesting of women, that a church that ordains women as priests must also accept their ministry as Bishops. They have acknowledged that the Church in Wales has made a decision in favour of having women priests and recognise that bishops have always been chosen from amongst the ordained. It is made very clear at every induction service that priests exercise the ministry of the Bishop in their parish or place of ministry. The priests share in episcopal ministry already. So, once the priesthood includes women as well as men, it is very hard indeed to justify why only male priests could be gifted by God for a ministry of oversight as bishops. What this says to the Church in Wales, is that we have already made the decision, in theory, that women are called by God to participate in episcopal ministry. Making the provisions that would allow for women to be ordained as Bishops is merely the logical conclusion of what we already allow for.

Women Bishops: Engendering dispute?

Some in this debate may urge caution and speak about the need for a “process of reception,” the supposed ecumenical consequences of such a move and the need to move forward together as Christians. In the light of such statements it is worth remembering that women’s ordination has been formally debated in the Anglican Communion since 1920. Women’s ministry has been a concept and a reality that has been under scrutiny for many years. Those who urge caution before action to allow women’s full participation in our church’s ministry must also consider the costs and the effects of maintaining a sphere of ministry from which women are barred by their gender. A refusal to move forward by opening the episcopal ministry to women makes a statement that is just as strong as any action taken to change our current church policy. There really is no neutral ground on this issue here in Wales, where we have experienced women’s ministry for so long that any argument about needing a “process of reception” or a time to test the idea sounds very flimsy indeed.

In Wales we were ahead of the Church of England in ordaining women as deacons some twenty-five years ago. As our Bench of Bishops reminded us in a recent statement, September 2006 will mark the ten year anniversary since the Governing Body agreed a Bill to enable women to be ordained to the priesthood in Wales. Since this time the Bishops say that:

The Church has benefited from the significant contribution that women have made to this form of ordained ministry.

The Church in Wales already knows a great deal about the ministry of women. We have a wealth of experience in our parishes already that tells us how the ministry of women priests, deacons (and before that deaconesses) has been appreciated and valued. In his recent book, The Road to Growth, the Venerable Bob Jackson, who has done much work in Wales recently, points out that current evidence concerning the health of churches led by women priests is very encouraging. Without wishing to draw any premature conclusions from his findings, he notes that statistics on church growth,

do begin to answer the practical worries that churches with women priests would not thrive because their ministry would not be accepted, or would be in some way limited by their gender.

Bob Jackson confirms with statistical evidence what many parishes that have been served by women priests and deacons are saying from their own experience: that ordained women serve the church at least as well as their male colleagues. In Wales the very faithful ministry of many women has provided continuity of pastoral care and leadership in many of the rural and post-industrial areas of the Province where no other priest could be found, in some cases for several years.

The debate about women Bishops is sometimes presented as an issue that could potentially damage our ecumenical partnerships. This fear is unfounded and appears not to acknowledge the enabling consequences of having women bishops. Our relationships with many churches would be enhanced by such a move. The Methodist Church first ordained women in 1974 and has had women Chairs of District (which is the structural equivalent of a bishop) and more recently even a female President of Conference. The United Reformed Church declared itself an equal opportunities organisation in 1994 stating “Equal opportunities is not an option for Christians; it is a moral and getting to be a legal, imperative.” The Presbyterian Church in Wales, The Union of Welsh Independents and the Baptist Union of Wales all also accept women in every level of their ministries, many “Chapel” people in Wales have long experience of women in positions of religious leadership.

The Church in Wales is linked internationally to ecumenical partners who have women bishops. These include; the Swedish and Norwegian Lutheran Churches through the Porvoo agreement, the German Evangelical Church with whom we are linked through the Meissen Agreement, The French Lutheran Church and the Moravian Church in the UK.

It is true that the Roman Catholic Church does not ordain women and is forbidden at an official level to even discuss the matter at this time. However, despite this, there is a considerable degree of active support for this; Catholic Women’s Ordination and Women’s Ordination Worldwide (CWO and WOW) are two groups that organise conferences and training for women’s ministry. A number of Roman Catholic theologians, such as Sr Myra Poole and Dr Dorothea McEwan have bravely written in support of women’s ordination. I have met Roman Catholic women who want their church to think creatively and imaginatively about new patterns of ministry; and there are other Roman Catholics who are longing for their church to move forward on this issue. Many of these are grateful to Anglicans who they view as taking a lead on this issue.

The Orthodox Churches do allow free discussion on the subject of ordaining women and there are signs of a greater openness towards women’s ministry in recent years. In 1988 and 1997 The Ecumenical Patriarch called for a revival of women in the diaconate and in 2005 the Church of Greece voted to allow this to happen. Orthodox theologians meanwhile have taken their arguments even further and a number of prominent figures, including Professor Grigorios Larentzakis, Bishop Kallistos Ware and Professor Constantinos N. Yokaris have concluded that there are no strict theological reasons to prevent women from being ordained as priests. It seems evident that many Orthodox Christians also live in a spirit of expectation and hope concerning the possibility of the full inclusion of women in ministry.

Within the Anglican Communion it is very clear that the Church in Wales is not a lone voice in giving serious consideration to this issue, in fact we are behind many Provinces in debating this. In 1988 a resolution was passed at the Lambeth Conference, which stated that individual Anglican Provinces are free to make their own decisions on women bishops and that these are to be respected by the other Provinces.

Out of the 38 Provinces, 14, including Ireland and Scotland have already passed legislation to enable the ordination of women as bishops. The others are: The United States, Aotearoa - New Zealand and Polynesia, Canada, Bangladesh, Brazil, Central America, Japan, Mexico, North India, the Philippines, Southern Africa and Sudan. As we know The Church of England is currently also considering this issue.

My experience of meeting Anglican women from around the world was that there is a great hunger for our churches to release women to use all their gifts in every part of the ordained ministry. Many women believe that this  will enable us to get on with other important work.

The situation within the Anglican Communion, where women’s ordination has gradually evolved in a growing number of Provinces is very encouraging. Not every Province has moved together on this and yet the Communion has dealt with the variety of ministry that this has produced over the past 28 years. Our Anglican bonds of unity are being tested currently over the issue of sexuality but many still respect one of the greatest values of Anglicanism as being our ability as a Church to live and worship together, even when we disagree about things that are important to us.

TEA and sympathy

One of the most taxing questions about ordaining women as bishops, and about any decision that is taken, is the question of how we deal as a church with those who disagree.

Transferred Episcopal Arrangements (TEA) is one option that is under discussion in England now. There are those who are asking for “alternative episcopal oversight” so that they do not have to receive the ministry of a woman bishop. The proposals are that arrangements are made where-ever they are deemed necessary to ensure that priests and parishes can opt to relate to a male bishop if their diocesan bishop is female.

Although such a solution may sound simple on paper, there are many problems with this kind of proposal.

There are obvious pastoral issues about who decides when alternative oversight is necessary. Is it the view of a parish priest that is critical or the view of the laity in a parish?  What if people and their priest disagree on this matter? How could the church stop the process being abused by those who simply don’t like their bishop or disagree with her on some other matter? What happens about issues of pastoral re-organisation:  Which bishop decides about matters that cross ­parish boundaries where people have different views about women bishops?

Perhaps the most serious difficulty of this approach is that it undermines the historic and catholic identity of the ministry and office of a bishop. To create a limited episcopal role for women, whereby women bishops have only some authority in their area of oversight is to create a new class of bishop. It begs the question: What division will be next? If the church cannot agree on other issues, will we create a whole network of different types of bishops? If we take this approach, what does this say about our willingness to face difference and to learn from it and from each other?

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block with this kind of approach is that it seems to neglect the possibility that our church has the capacity to act with grace and generosity. We are called by baptism to lives of constant love and forgiveness. This means that we do not have to approach situations of difference armed with defensive legislation, God has equipped us with much better tools for ministry and reconciliation. It ought to be possible that as Christians we can trust each other sufficiently to know that we can minister generously together. We might have enough faith to believe that the Holy Spirit guides us in creating new possibilities for community even in our diversity. We have already seen this happen in churches that currently have women bishops, - where those involved have taken steps to make informal pastoral arrangements to care for the needs of all. This is not to deny that facing change can be challenging, but it allows space for mature and positive ways forward to be found in each local situation.

Our faith is something that is much bigger than any of us – in that sense we  never stop becoming a Christian, we are constantly challenged to grow and learn in faith. A major way in which we learn is though encountering new things and perhaps some of our key points of learning come from situations that are difficult for us.

Historically, the Christian church has had to make decisions at many points in its history in order to grow and function as a community of faith. At every time when decisions have been made, there have been those who have felt disappointed or thwarted. Sometimes there have been groups within the church who have had to surrender ideas that were extremely precious to them. Ephrem Lash (an Orthodox speaker at the General Synod of the Church of England, in February 2006) spoke about the dispute over the nature of Christ in the early Church and the conflict involved with that. He said that church leaders have always settled important debates by decree of a Council and reminded General Synod that, “there was no TEA for Arians”. The church has had to make many decisions over the centuries and those who have held strong opinions have always had to find ways to be reconciled to whatever has been decided.

The Church in Wales has come to a point where many people are recognising that we need to move forwards and make a decision about women bishops now. In these challenging times we know that we need the best ministry our church can get and we have a particular need for young and able ordinands. There has been a recognised drop in the number of younger women offering themselves for ordained ministry in our church and allowing women the possibility to be role models in every area of ministry could be one part of addressing this problem.

We do have some choice over how we move forwards now: Doing nothing, of course, is not being neutral. Putting off a decision is to continue to actively deny the ministry of the episcopate to women and passively this gives a strong message about gender and service to any who encounter our church.

We can choose, if we wish, to legislate for difference on this issue and crystallise the things that divide members of our church.

Or we can choose to find the generosity and sensitivity to get on with working together as men and women in full partnership in ministry in the Church in Wales now.

Questions for discussion:

1. How can we empower all the baptised in our church to feel confident to offer their gifts in Christ’s service?
2. Think of the people who have had most influence or impact on your own discipleship and sense of vocation: to what extent has their gender been an important factor in their ministry to or with you?
3. Where do we see our place and calling in the Anglican Communion and the wider Christian family?
4. When we talk of listening and waiting – to whom do we listen and for whom do we wait?
5. What do we communicate to others by the way we handle our differences as a church?
6. What does it mean to you to show constant love and forgiveness on this issue?