Southern African Anglicans Could Ordain Women as Early as September
Episcopal News Service. August 19, 1992 [92171]
After a four-hour debate at a college near Mbabane, Swaziland, the synod of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) decided by a 79-percent majority vote to approve the ordination of women as priests. Several bishops indicated that they might ordain in September, although there could be legal challenges to block such a move.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, president of the synod, acknowledged that the issue had been a divisive controversy in the church, which includes 23 dioceses in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, St. Helena and Namibia, with a membership of 2.4 million, 75 percent of whom are black. In 1989, the proposal to ordain women to the priesthood failed by a narrow margin to secure the necessary two-thirds majority vote. The church has ordained 32 women as deacons since 1985.
The delegates also asked the church's Synod of Bishops to draw up guidelines "to meet the needs of those who have difficulties of conscience" with the decision. However, the synod rejected a suggestion that no women should be ordained before the next Provincial Synod had approved "protective legislation" for those opposed to the move.
Noting that the debate was "soaked in the prayers of the faithful in the CPSA and around the world," Dean Colin Jones of Cape Town said that he had been struck by the adversarial nature of the debate. Jones, who introduced the resolution to open ordination to women, said in an interview that he hoped that the church was "committed to holding on to each other and realizing there is some pain as a result of this decision."
Bishop Tom Stanage of Bloemfontein, one of several bishops to vote against the resolution, said that he was "gravely disappointed" by the vote and was "in a state of personal sorrow." Yet he said that he thought that the debate was "loving and prayerful." The bishop argued that restoring the distinctive roles of men and women was necessary to protect the place of the family. "Without this balance, society can only suffer the mortal wound of identity psychosis and the tragic breakdown of family life," Stanage said.
Jones, on the other hand, argued that there must be more to priesthood than maleness. "The essential characteristics of God are not wrapped up in gender," Jones said. "God is both male and female in character. If Christ is the icon of God, then he represents our maleness and our femaleness," he added. In recalling the role of his mother and grandmother in his own childhood, Jones said that "women have brought me to faith. They were the priests in my home -- and I thank God for that."
Tutu underscored both the pain and the joy of the occasion and stressed that the vote did not compel any bishop to ordain women. In reference to the CPSA's 1989 decision to postpone a vote on women's ordination, Tutu said that God seemed to be telling the church to wait "so that we should be able to move together. And I praise God that we today are able to say we are moving together in this fellowship -- that it is not a fellowship of uniformity but of unity." Tutu then relinquished the chair and left the room, saying that "emotionally I am unable to continue."
The next day Tutu and Bishop Michael Nuttall of Natal introduced a resolution assuring opponents of the decision that "there is a cherished place for them in our Lord's church, which would be impoverished without them." The resolution saluted the "theological integrity and devotion to, and love for, our Lord as well as the dedication to Catholic truth, belief, tradition and spirituality of those in the church who oppose the ordination of women to the priesthood."
Tutu paid tribute to women deacons for "their quiet dignity" and "the way in which they had borne the pain" of being denied ordination.
Bishops, clergy and lay representatives voted separately on the resolution. In the House of Bishops, the vote in favor of ordination was 21 to 6. In the House of Clergy, it was 70 to 25, and in the House of Laity, it was 75 to 14. The total votes were 166 in favor and 45 against.
The province now joins a growing group of Anglican churches around the world who have voted in recent years to ordain women to the priesthood -- including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and most recently a diocese in Australia.
Of the 34 provinces and member churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion, 15 have ordained women as deacons, and 14 have ordained women to the priesthood. In some cases, individual dioceses ordain women to these orders, without province-wide agreement. The Church of England will vote on the issue at its General Synod in November.