Two letters [TLC, Sept. 12] reveal the same confusion over the foundation of debates on radical new positions in the church - debates between the so-called "conservatives" and "liberals." Both are objecting to Fr. Heidt's Viewpoint [TLC, Aug. 29], and both rest on an understanding of revelation as an ongoing process in which changing cultural situations lead to changing understandings of the one, immutable truth. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this view.

To wit, it requires us to assume that the church in the past was never really given an understanding of God's will and of immutable truth, since the church in the present is now compelled to revise that former understanding - but it's hard to argue that God has changed his mind. This difficulty, in turn, stems from what "conservatives" see as a misunderstanding of the church. In their view, it consists of all those in communion with bishops in a line of succession from the apostolic church, consecrated according to the will of the body by the laying on of hands. It's called the sacrament of ordination. It is this church, gathered in council or otherwise reaching universal agreement with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which can proclaim new doctrine.

Fr. Funston says the ordination of women is founded on the "objective and universally accepted principles of reason tested by the common belief and experience of the whole church." He thereby leaves out of the church the vast majority of its members and branches scattered across the globe. The "church" he is talking about is a tiny fraction of the whole of Catholic Christendom - not even the whole of the Anglican Communion. To say of this minuscule group that the "whole church" has tested this new practice requires a mind-blowing arrogance (of which I am sure Fr. Funston is completely unaware). But until the true "whole church" accepts this and other novelties, they remain outside the deposit of the faith.

Robert Lancaster

Paso Robles, Calif.