Bishop Allin Reaffirms Ordination Position
Episcopal News Service. April 12, 1976 [76130]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has reaffirmed his leadership role of not taking a position on one side or the other with regard to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate.
In an interview following his return from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Trinidad, Bishop Allin said that most of the member churches in the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is a part, have not "totally resolved" the question of women's ordination. The ACC did not adopt any resolutions on this issue, he said, but heard reports from member churches on their current situations.
He said that his own position had been misunderstood by some following an address he gave at the Mississippi Annual Council (convention) on January 30. At that meeting Bishop Allin had said, "I think we're going to vote to ordain women" at the Minnesota General Convention this September. "I hope we will celebrate the fact. "
Bishop Allin said that he had not intended "to make a major address" at the Mississippi meeting "and I certainly did not intend to announce a change in my own position." He noted that some of the press had reported a change in his position and he has received a great many letters relating to the incident.
He said that he continues to take a position that is neither for nor against the ordination of women to the priesthood, which is one of the major issues facing the Episcopal Church today and which is expected to be on the agenda of the General Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul, September 11-23.
"I have not taken a position for or against the ordination of women," Bishop Allin said, "because I maintain that the major responsibility of the office of the Presiding Bishop is to encourage the Church to continue to debate and discuss the issue without putting the influence of this office on one side or the other."
He said that he had been speaking to a group of people in the Diocese of Mississippi, where he served as diocesan bishop prior to his election as Presiding Bishop in 1973, as one who knew the people well. He said that he did not realize his remarks would be given such wide distribution and that they might be misunderstood by some.
Rather than announcing a change in his position, he said one of his "major concerns" is to continue "to undergird and strengthen the Church's fellowship so that as a fellowship we can deal with these issues in the best way possible and come, God willing, to the right resolution."
Bishop Allin said that in responding to a question that had been put to him before he gave his address, he had said that he thought the General Convention would possibly approve the ordination of women to the priesthood this fall. But now, "since that statement was made, I have discovered that the Church really doesn't know yet which way it's going to vote, so that perhaps even my guess in Mississippi was out of order."
"I may have misread" the Church's inclination at that time, he said.
Bishop Allin said that in the Mississippi address he had said jokingly "to a group of people who knew me" and "with whom I had lived and served for a long time," that "if God can make me Presiding Bishop, he can make women priests."
"I'm grateful for those people who saw that statement in the context of attempted humor rather than a serious theological statement." He said he regrets that some have been upset by his statement.
"Obviously there is no serious comparison between these two acts," he said. "I was simply saying with humor that if I could be elected Presiding Bishop, then we have to be prepared for anything to happen. I didn't mean to put anybody down and I didn't mean to upset anyone. I was calling on us all to be faithful and to continue to work together for a common understanding of what the Lord's will really is."
Bishop Allin said that he hopes "we will examine more closely the full meaning of ministry, both lay and ordained, that we will look carefully at the function of deacons and bishops as well as priests. I hope we will look more carefully at what priesthood really means and not treat it as synonymous with all of ministry."
"I also hope," he said, "that we will continue to look carefully at the Christian understanding of human sexuality and seek to be as clear in our statements about this as we possibly can. "
Bishop Allin said that he considers his leadership role to be "to try to encourage the Episcopal Church to pull its strength together for the mission, the faithful mission, for faithful service in the Lord's mission, and not be divided even on these most serious issues. If we stay together," he added, "we can resolve these issues, and that's my major plea. This is a responsibility that is shared throughout the Church."
Bishop Allin said that the Trinidad meeting of the ACC, the third one since the group was organized following the 1968 Lambeth Conference, and his first, was disappointing to him because the council "like so many of our councils and conferences became more occupied in writing a report to be circulated among the Anglican Communion rather than concentrating on developing a picture among those present of the state of the Church throughout the world."
He spoke highly of the leadership of Dr. Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, who is president of the ACC, and of Dr. Marion Kelleran of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., who is chairman.
The Archbishop of Canterbury announced that the 1978 Lambeth Conference as proposed would go forward. Bishop Allin reported that the ACC said that it "felt all diocesan bishops should be there and made it clear that while we're in an age in which the bishops do not speak alone for the Church, there is nevertheless a need for the episcopate to be able to consider and examine itself."
In the interview Bishop Allin noted that he has done extensive traveling recently -- to Africa for the World Council of Churches assembly last November-December; to Istanbul to visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch in December; to the Far East in March, followed immediately by the ACC meeting in Trinidad; and to a number of places in the U.S. He said that while he finds such traveling "meaningful and expected of the Presiding Bishop," he also has found "that we're going to have to make some real changes in this."
"It's not possible for the Presiding Bishop to go to all of the places where there are invitations each year," he said. "I feel it is important that other members of this Church -- bishops, key clergy, and lay people -- share in the task of representing the Church around the world."
"I think it is important for the Presiding Bishop to find some way to spend a great deal more time in the Episcopal Church Center in New York City, to be available to members of the Church who come there, and to work with the rest of the Church Center staff who are attempting to serve the Church, and to coordinate this mission which is not only nationwide but is really worldwide."
"I like to make a personal response when called on, but I hope the Church will increasingly understand that no one person can do that."
He said that he had found that two of his recent traveling companions -- Dr. Peter Day, Ecumenical Officer, who accompanied him to see the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, and the Rev. Samuel Van Culin, World Mission Secretary, who accompanied him to Nairobi and other places in Africa, and to the Far East -- "are both known throughout the ecumenical circles as well as our own Anglican Church. We are well represented by them," he said.