Bishop Allin Calls for Renewal in Ministry
Diocesan Press Service. May 2, 1975 [75163]
ELY, Nev. -- Renewal of the total Christian ministry was called for by Presiding Bishop John M. Allin at the convention of the Diocese of Nevada meeting in Ely April 11-13.
Responding to a question regarding possible schism in the Church as a result of the controversy over ordination of women, Bishop Allin said that the issue of the ordination of women was but one very important issue among many important issues. He emphasized that the Church must not single out the ordination issue as its only priority or its top priority but that the Church has to keep operating on many fronts with the most intelligence it can amass.
"What we need to do," he said, "is to search out as a church that which we really believe God wants and that which will enable us to be renewed as a total Christian ministry. I see that," he said, "as an overriding issue and I hope that all of us from our various points of view will give ourselves to that so that we have that much in common. The greatest need is for renewal of the total ministry, and I think we've just begun on that task. "
Bishop Allin went on to say that somewhere the Church has lost sight of the fact that Christ says that if we would find our life we must be willing to lose our life. "We can't always ask for the guarantees," he continued.
"What I hear so much of," he said, "is what are you going to do for me and my rights and my recognition and the reason that happens so easily is that guys like me in the ordained ministry have conditioned the Church to think in terms of hierarchy.
"But," the Bishop continued, "I look around this church, and we don't need a hierarchy. We are a community. I am not the head of the Church; Christ is the head of the Church. "
Bishop Allin went on to call for an evolution in ministry, and he said that the evolution involves more than the issue of the ordination of women. He said that he felt that the tragedy at the moment is that the women's ordination issue and prayer book revision are the two on which the Church has focused all its attention.
"We've just begun on the task of the renewal of the total ministry," Bishop Allin said, "and we need to break down the barriers between the ordained clergy, who have a service to render to the total body, so that the total body can render service in Christ's name to the world. That means being more precise about professionalism and standards and it means enabling every baptized member to be what this church for long, long years has said we should be -- namely avenues of the body of Christ. Some of the most articulate forces the Church has will never be ordained.
" I believe, " he said, "that we may need fewer men in orders as we broaden the concept and share the functions of ministry. The problem is that we've said the priest is supposed to be everything.
"By the power of God we can find a solution," Bishop Allin concluded, "but I think the spirit in which we, the Church, look for it is more important than to end up as a debating society concerned principally with who wins the last round. "