In Historic Service, Church of England Ordains 32 Women to the Priesthood
Episcopal News Service. March 24, 1994 [94058]
In a dramatic and historic service described as "a new beginning" for the Church of England, 32 women were ordained to the priesthood on March 12 in the 13th-century cathedral in Bristol.
The service was the final event in a decades-long movement for the ordination of women, a struggle some observers have said was the most important step for the Church of England since the 16th-century Reformation. The women took their places in history and received the laying on of hands, an ancient Christian gesture symbolizing the ordination of priests
The stately and formal ordination rite proceeded without any interruptions or objections. For much of the service, television cameras and vergers with walkie talkies were the only hint of the historic significance of the event.
"Is it your will that they should be ordained priests?" Bishop Barry Rogerson of Bristol asked the estimated 1,200 members of the congregation. "It is!" was the thunderous and emphatic response that rang throughout the cathedral.
A male deacon read the Gospel account of the encounter and charge to Mary Magdalene in the garden on Easter morning. In the sermon, Rogerson spoke of the long and patient pilgrimage of the women being ordained. "The journey of these women has not been a journey of the mind or the head, but is seen by those they have touched and who know that the Spirit of God is at work in them," Rogerson said.
Rogerson also spoke of the transformation in the life of the Apostle Paul from his male-dominated heritage to the revelation that all were equal in Christ. He called for an end to discriminatory practices in the selection of people for the ministry.
The Rev. Angela Berners-Wilson, the senior Anglican chaplain at then University of Bristol, was the first to receive the laying on of hands. The women ranged in age from 30 to nearly 70.
As the sign of their new order the women adjusted their stoles from the "deacon" position to that of a priest and received a Bible. At the passing of the peace, the newly ordained women, some clearly on the verge of tears, mingled with male clergy and members of the congregation.
"I just think heaven and Earth moved a bit closer today," said the Rev. Jane Hayward, one of the women ordained, following the service. Hayward will serve as vicar of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. Another new priest, the Rev. Susan Shipp of East Bristol described her ordination as "being liberated into the ministry."
One of the official representatives of the Episcopal Church to the event, Sally Bucklee, said that she was "overwhelmed by the sweep of history" represented by the occasion. Bucklee, who is president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus, an organization of Episcopalians that supports equality for women in the church, said that she felt "a tremendous sense of fullness and completion" when the women received the laying on of hands.
Just before Rogerson gave the blessing, the Rev. Mark Cornelis, a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium, spoke to the congregation, asking them to "pray that the Roman Catholic church may finally be able to overcome ossified and discriminating legislation and allow women to be ordained and lead the way in preaching God's work, in celebrating Eucharist, and in showing ways for the community of faith to go."
Describing the event as "the culmination of almost 20 years of formal debate and many more years of prayer and reflection," the archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr. George Carey and Dr. John Habgood, said that the ordination marked "a new beginning" in the life of the church.
Carey and Habgood urged both supporters and opponents of the ordination of women to the priesthood to show "generosity, tolerance, courtesy and loving patience with each other."
However, tolerance and courtesy were the victims of high emotions on both sides of the issue outside the cathedral. There were banners supporting the women's ordination, including ones that read, "RC women next," and "A Woman's Place is in the House of Bishops." A priest who opposed the ordinations purchased an advertisement on a local billboard reading, "The Church of England murdered today." A priest in Lincoln was reported to compare female priests to witches and dogs. And another told television reporters on CNN that the ordinations in Bristol had created "an order of transvestite priests -- women dressing up as priests."
Yet, Church of England officials contended that opposition is not as widespread as has been reported. Although as many as 700 clergy -- some of them retired -- have threatened to become Roman Catholics, so far fewer than 50 have formally resigned. Another 100 have indicated that they may leave the Church of England by next January. The Church of England has more than 10,000 priests.
In a statement released from the Vatican just hours before the ordinations in Bristol, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls reiterated that Pope John Paul II "had clearly and publicly affirmed that the ordination of women also constitutes a profound obstacle to every hope of reunion between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. This reunion is and remains a great hope, which this new obstacle makes more difficult," Navarro-Valls said.
However, an Anglican bishop who co-chaired Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue (ARCIC) was less pessimistic. "I believe the obstacles can and must be overcome," said Bishop Mark Santer. "I am confident that there will be a way round it."
Although the Church of England's General Synod determined in 1975 that there was no theological obstacle to ordaining women, the issue has been the subject of contentious debate for nearly two decades. On November 11, 1992, the synod voted by the required two-thirds majority to approve legislation permitting the ordination of women as priests.
Anglican Communion officials estimate that there are more than 2,000 women ordained as priests worldwide within 14 of 31 autonomous provinces of the communion. Nearly 1,000 women deacons are expected to be ordained as priests in the Church of England this year.
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