Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Church to ordain women Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST Message-ID: \SE A \SS (WS) \HD Church to ordain women \SH Anglicans brace for internal rift \BY Graham Heathcote \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT LONDON LONDON - The Church of England voted yesterday to ordain women as priests, risking a schism with a minority in its pulpits and pews that feels the move contradicts Scripture and tradition. The vote allows the Church of England to join 12 of the 28 self-governing provinces in the Anglican Communion that already ordain female priests - most of them in the 2.5-million-member Episcopal Church in the United States. In Rome, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said the vote was a "grave obstacle" to repairing the 16th-century split between Roman Catholics and Anglicans. "The church has been emotionally exhausted over this. Now we can get on with preaching the Gospel," said Cave Bergquist, a chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was in the crowd awaiting news of the vote outside Church House in central London. With a two-thirds majority required in each of the three houses of the church's General Synod, the legislation was approved 39-13 by the bishops, 176-74 by the clergy and 169-82 among the laity after a daylong debate. A switch of just two votes among lay delegates would have blocked the path to priesthood for the church's 1,350 female deacons. If Parliament and Queen Elizabeth II endorse the decision, as expected, the first female priest could be ordained in 1994. "The ordination of women to the priesthood alters not a word in the creeds, the Scriptures or the faith of our church," said the archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, the spiritual head of the Church of England. The legislation does not permit female bishops. Also, parishes may refuse to accept a woman as priest and bishops cannot be compelled to ordain women or accept them as priests in their dioceses. After its historic vote, the synod approved severance-pay arrangements for any full-time priest who decides to resign rather than accept women as priests. Some opponents threatened to leave the church. Michael Silver, who was in the crowd outside Church House, said those who did not want the change "have no choice but to rebuild the Church of England from outside." Bishop David Hope of London said that a split "is a danger, but we have to wait and see how the thing turns out." "I now have to reflect carefully on the decision and the sort of options that lie open before me," said the bishop, who opposed the legislation. "And I hope that I will do that in a generous and Christian kind of way." The crowd of about 400 outside Church House roared in approval as it heard a radio broadcast of Archbishop Carey announcing the vote. Many who had been clutching lighted candles hugged, cried, danced in circles and set off fireworks. "The vote was an affirmation of the direction the U.S. Episcopal Church took, and it will have an immense effect on the Australian Anglicans who vote on it November 21," said the Rev. Robbin Clark, an Episcopal priest from Santa Fe, N.M. The synod's debate underlined the passion on both sides of the issue. "Where lies the relevance of my gender when I exercise judgment, teaching, discipline, order and spiritual endeavor?" the Rev. June Osborne, deacon of Bow in east London, told the synod. Canon Christopher Colven of London argued that "the maleness of Christian ministerial priesthood may be an obstacle to some, madness to others, but I have yet to be convinced that it's not part of God's revelation for the salvation of us all." Mr. Navarro, the Vatican spokesman, said Pope John Paul II told Archbishop Carey in May that the issue "touched on the very nature of the sacrament of holy ordination." "The Catholic Church, for fundamental theological reasons, does not believe it has the right to authorize such ordinations," Mr. Navarro said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM