After a Year, 1,387 Women Priests in England Release 'Energy Into the Ministry'
Episcopal News Service. April 7, 1995 [95069]
Cedric Pulford, Reporter for Ecumenical News International.
(ENI) -- Just over a year after the ordination of the first women priests in the Church of England "it seems all too normal now -- one wonders what the fuss was about," according to Patience Purchas, one of the 1,387 women ordained in the past year.
On March 12 last year, 32 women were ordained as priests at Bristol Cathedral. They and the hundreds who soon followed are now serving in many roles including parish incumbent, team rector, canon, rural dean and chaplain, already representing about one-tenth of Anglican priests in England.
Purchas speaks of female clergy providing "a great release of gifts and energy into the ministry."
But unemployment is a problem, with up to 500 women lacking paid religious work.
From all indications, the momentum for the ordination of women continues. In 1993-94 (the latest year for which figures are available) women represent 30 percent of those who are preparing for the priesthood or 125 women as compared with 548 men in theological colleges. In non-residential courses there were 215 women and 240 men.
The Bishop of Hereford, John Oliver, said recently of women priests, "I believe that women in ministry are bringing their distinctive gifts to bear -- perhaps above all a willingness to share leadership and to surrender power.
"The acceptance of their ministry has been so warm and so rapid that women priests feel a totally normal part of life, and their gifts and skills are enormously enriching," he said.
The argument over women priests that traumatized the Church of England for a decade may have faded, but not all the problems have gone away. Purchas speaks of the "gut-lag of people whose heads say they should accept women priests but whose feelings say otherwise."
Christina Rees of Ministry of Women (formerly the Movement for the Ordination of Women) is convinced that "guerrilla opposition continues." For example, on many issues, Catholic traditionalists and evangelical fundamentalists are in different camps, but they have made an unusual alliance against women's ordination. And those who continue their opposition face the choice of leaving the Church of England to join the Roman Catholic Church or go "into the wilderness."
A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in England said recently that about 200 Church of England priests have sought to join the Roman Catholic Church.
It will be some time before any find themselves in Roman Catholic parishes, however. Training in Roman Catholic traditions and teachings will last up to two years. Moreover, after initial hesitation, the Vatican has decided that married clergy leaving the Church of England will not be able to administer parishes.
Under the leadership of Cardinal Basil Hume, the Roman Catholics have been careful to avoid triumphalism about these conversions. Neither have Anglicans made capital over clergymen who switched to Roman Catholicism and then returned.
For women like Rees and Purchas, troubles belong largely to the past and the future looks bright.
Rees sees unemployment among women priests as a regrettable "blip" that will be resolved. "Large batches of clergymen were ordained after the Second World War," she told ENI. "These people will be retiring in the next few years, so there will be many vacancies."
Purchas, whose husband Tom is rector of Wheathampstead and rural dean, believes ordained couples have a distinctive contribution to make to the church. In the Diocese of St. Albans, she is one of the dozen or so women priests. She and her husband "don't do a double act," however. She said that some couples do make it work well, often dividing the parish into their own areas of interest.
As a member of the diocesan team, Purchas works away from Wheathampstead, and she and her husband have separate telephone lines into the rectory. Purchas is well-placed to avoid another fate that seems to befall women priests. As one woman priest lamented recently, "Taking holy orders hasn't made that much difference. The parishioners still see me as the vicar's wife."