lesson 4

Question 1

What do most people say about issues in Bible

Answer 1

-Most people would accept that there are serious gender differences expressed within the New Testament.

-It is also accepted that, in the world in which the Early Church developed, the role of women was very different from that of today.

Question 2

What questions do u ask to figure out issues in NT

Answer 2

-How far are the New Testament references to the role of women just a reflection of society of the time?

-How and why do the New Testament writers deal with these issues?

-If the New Testament texts have to be interpreted in the light of their original context in order to have authority for Christians, how do you decide what is right or wrong today?

-Should the Church conform to the social norms of today, as it may have done to social norms when it was written?
These general questions impact on current debates within the Church, in terms of the ordination of women, homosexuality and the response of the Church to transgender issues.

Question 3

Differing social status of women around the world

Answer 3

-The social status of women varies greatly in different parts of the world, influenced by the economic situation, culture and religion.

-in areas that survive on subsistence farming, women work the land and bring up children as they have always done.

-In Saudi Arabia, women work away from the home and follow careers, but what they can do in society is also controlled by the very strict religious codes followed in that country.

-The place of women within the Church is partly decided on theological grounds, but discussions are influenced by the social and political situation.

Question 4

Women in UK

Answer 4

-In the UK, it is illegal to discriminate against women in terms of employment.

-If a woman is capable of doing a job, she should be allowed to do it on equal terms with a man. There have been exceptions to this principle.

-For a long time, women were not allowed to be ordained within the Church of England.

-This was controversial on theological grounds, but it also created legal problems, since it could be argued that the Church was breaching equal opportunity legislation by forbidding female ordination.

Question 5

Whats another social restriction woman face

Answer 5

-The other social restriction women face on their careers is termed ‘the glass ceiling’.

-Although in theory women are allowed to compete with men at all levels, in practice there are more men than women in senior roles in business and industry.

-One of the main reasons for this is that women often take a career break to have children. This means they miss out on promotion to more senior positions.

Question 6

Politics and women

Answer 6

-In politics, women have held senior roles - as Prime Minister in the UK, as a Democratic nominee in the 2016 US presidential election, and as Chancellor of Germany, the most influential post within the European Community.

-Legally and socially, men and women should be treated equally - that is a principle deeply embedded within democratic societies.

Question 7

Christian Egalitarians

Answer 7

argue that there should be no distinction between men and women when it comes to their roles within the Church.

That applies also between racial and social groups - all are to be equal before Christ, and should be treated as such.

Question 8

Christian Complementarians

Answer 8

argue that men and women are of equal importance in the sight of God, but that they have different and complementary roles, in marriage, family life, society, and also in the organisation of the Church.

Question 9

The Catholic view: equal but different

Answer 9

-The Roman Catholic Church believes that philosophy, tradition and the teaching of the Church all point towards a complementarian view of the roles of men and women in the Church.

Question 10

Catholic view - NML

Answer 10

-Within Catholic thinking, Natural Law suggests that people should live in a way that reflects their inherent nature.

-If men and women have different natures, it follows that they should take different roles in life.

-This does not mean that one is more valuable than the other, but just that they are different. This follows the complementarian view that men and women should complement one another.

Question 11

The tradition of the Early Church

Answer 11

-We do not know the extent of women’s ministry in the Early Church, except for references to them in the scriptures, and their opposition by leaders in the fifth century.

-One of these, Pope Gelasius, wrote in t opposing women taking part in the one of these, Pope Gelasius 1, wrote that some were taking on the role that was later reserved exclusively for men.

Question 12

Apostolic Succession

Answer 12

-The Catholic and Anglo-Catholic view of the ordained ministry also points to the fact that Jesus appointed only men as his apostles.

-Apostolic Succession is the idea that the bishops of the Church are consecrated in a line of succession that goes unbroken back to the apostles. Therefore, ministry can only be passed on from men to men.

Question 13

What did the Vatican release

Answer 13

the Vatican issued a declaration Inter Insigniores, ‘ of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood’

Question 14

What did ‘ of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood’ include

Answer 14

-That the ordination of women in the Early Church was limited to minority sects and was condemned

-That the Church follows Christ himself in choosing only men for this ministry

-That whilst other Churches, following the Reformation, ordain women, this does not follow the historical tradition of the Church as a whole

-Jesus chose only men to be his ‘twelve’, but in his positive dealings with women, he rejected the social convention of his day. Jesus, therefore, showed the model for a high view of women which nevertheless excludes them from leadership in the Church.

makes an important point about biblical criticism. Although the Church is founded upon the example and teachings of Jesus as found in the New Testament, it is the Church that decides how those texts should be interpreted.

Question 15

Whats the protestant view called

Answer 15

The Protestant view: the priesthood of all believers

Question 16

key feature of Reformation theology

Answer 16

-expressed in the idea of ‘the priesthood of all believers’.

-This was the idea that all are equal before God, and that there is no need for God’s grace to be mediated through a priest.

-All Christians are called to serve God, and no one vocation or activity is any more ‘sacred’ than any other.

-Following the Protestant Reformation, people came to recognise the religious significance and importance of everyday life, secular as well as religious.

Question 17

Protestant reformation women

Answer 17

-At the time of the Protestant Reformation, women were seen as in need of protection, either within families or by marriage, but for Protestants, the secular roles of wife and mother were regarded as equal in importance to those of the monastic life.

-As a result of this, there is no need for a special priestly role in mediating between the two. Ordination as practised by the Catholic Church was not necessary for men, so the question of female ordination did not arise.

Question 18

Protestant Churches - women

Answer 18

-Protestant Churches today have varying views on the ministry of women, but these focus on whether or not women may hold a position of leadership rather than on the Catholic view (shared by Orthodox and Anglican Churches) of a specially holy priesthood.

-The arguments for and against women leaders in the Protestant Churches are, therefore, the same as those for and against gender equality generally.

Question 19

Anglican Church

Answer 19

-it should be remembered Catholic that the Church of England, although separated from the Roman Catholic Church by Henry VIII remained Catholic in structure and theology but was reformed in much of its thinking.

-For this reason the approach to women’s ordination in the Anglican churches is half way between the Protestant and the Catholic traditions.

-The Church of England accepts some of the freedom of the biblical interpretation of Protestantism but with the hierarchical and priestly structure of Roman Catholicism.

Question 20

The ordination of women to the priesthood

Answer 20

-first attempt to discuss women’s ordination was the Lambeth Conference in 1920.

-An Archbishops’ Commission was set up to consider the matter, but ruled it out.

-Florence Li Tim-Oi was a deaconess in China, who was ordained priest in 1944 because there were too few men available to minister to Anglicans in China during the war with Japan.

-The next step was taken in the Far East to meet a particularly urgent need In 1944, in response to a shortage of men in the Church following the e Japanese invasion, Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained in China.

-This was temporary, and she resigned her licence after the war. However, when the Synod of Hong Kong and Macao ordained two other women as priests in 1971, she was again officially recognised as a priest

Question 21

The consecration of women as bishops

Answer 21

-Within the Anglican Communion, Barbara Harris was elected suffragan (or assistant) bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in the USA in 1988, and consecrated the following year. In the Church of England controversy continued and its first female bishop, Libby Lane, was consecrated in 2015

-Elizabeth Jane Holden ‘Libby’ Lane (1966-)

-Lane became the first female bishop in the Church of England when she was consecrated in January 2015 as Bishop of Stockport.

Question 22

Role of Bishops

Answer 22

The role of Bishop, as overseer of a large number of Church congregations, includes the ordination of priests, and the sacrament of confirmation for those who have been prepared to become full members of the Church

Question 23

Traditionalist views

Answer 23

-Traditionalists considered that any ordination or confirmation carried out by woman would not be valid, because she could not continue the tradition of male ordination and consecration going back to the apostles.

-For this reason, some Conservative Churches in the Anglo-Catholic tradition insisted that they would not accept the ‘oversight’ of female bishop or of any bishop who consecrated female priests.

-Arrangements were, therefore, made for them to be cared for by ‘provincial episcopal visitors’ They were responsible for the care of those who, in conscience, could not accept the ministry of female priests and bishops.

Question 24

What did some other Anglican people think

Answer 24

-some Anglican clergy felt that the Church of England had ceased to have a legitimate ministry.

-Some asked to be received into the Roman Catholic Church, and to receive ordination into the Roman Catholic priesthood.

-This included some married Anglican priests. Catholic priests are normally required to be celibate, but an exception was made for some of those who moved from the Church of England.

Question 25

Continuing debate

Answer 25

-The Church of England as a whole may have accepted the ordination of women as priests and the consecration of women as bishops, but many individual Christians and congregations, including some priests and bishops, continue to oppose the ordination of women.

-The Church of England makes allowances for people who feel this way by providing ‘alternative episcopal oversight’.

-This means that parishes which reject the ordination of women are put under the authority of a Bishop who shares their view, in addition to the Bishop of their own diocese.

Question 26

Rising number of women priests

Answer 26

-number of women priests in the Church of England has risen, the position of Bishops who oppose the ordination of women has become the subject of criticism.

-In 2017, it was announced that the suffragan Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, was to be the next Bishop of the diocese of Sheffield.

-As a diocesan bishop, he would have been responsible for all the parishes and clergy in the Sheffield diocese, including many female priests and parishes which welcome the ministry of women.

-Following criticism from within and outside the diocese, North withdrew his acceptance of the post.

Question 27

Taking a conservative view

Answer 27

-those who take a conservative view and reject the ordination of women have sometimes found themselves unable to continue to accept the authority of the Church, and a number of churches have refused to accept any oversight at all from a diocesan bishop who ordains women.

-At its most extreme, this has led to parishes separating themselves from the Church of England by asking conservative bishops from other continues to provide oversight.

-In 2017, the parish of Jesmond invited a bishop from a conservative Church in South Africa to consecrate their curate Jonathan Pryke as a bishop totally rejecting the authority of their diocesan Bishop of Durham.