Carey Ordains Women in Canterbury Cathedral
Episcopal News Service. May 18, 1994 [94107]
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, contributed to the growing tide of women's ordinations in the Church of England by ordaining 22 women to the priesthood in a May 8 service at Canterbury Cathedral.
Calling attention to the feast day for Julian of Norwich, the 14th-century English mystic remembered for her visions, Carey told the ordinands that "being a priest is not a romantic thing. Like all Christian ministry, it is to be a living sacrifice," he said. "The nature of this ministry is to give ourselves gladly for others." And he added that Julian would "identify at once with your desire to serve God in this way -- fully, faithfully and joyfully."
Carey spoke of the gifts that women would bring to the priesthood, observing that they would make the church's ministry "more inclusive of humanity than it has ever been." While expressing "sadness" that the ordinations were causing "dissension and division in the body of Christ" for some church members, he said that he was convinced that "no woman I know seeking ordination desires to be a focus of disunity. Yet, against her will, she finds she is."
In the Church of England and the church worldwide, Carey said, "there is a period of reception for the growing ministry of women." That doesn't mean that women should regard their ministry as incomplete in any way, but to recognize that "not everyone has received it." He called upon the new priests to pray for strength that their ministry might "help people to pass through the imagination barrier to see the possibilities of women, as well as men, sharing in the priesthood entrusted to God's church."