Church must be true to its theology

Jane Shaw, Dean of Divinity, chaplain and fellow of New College, Oxford on why General Synod must accept women bishops when it debates the issue in July.

When the General Synod debates women bishops in July, there will be lots of talk about thorny matters such as headship, church unity and reception, but the real issue will be this: is the church – are the people – calling for women to be admitted to the episcopate? The answer is a resounding yes. There are now about 2500 female priests, out of a total of about 10,000, in the Church of England –with more women in training – and their ministry has been overwhelmingly accepted by the vast majority of people in the Church, and by the wider population. The ordained ministry of women has been ‘received’ and affirmed, and there are now many calls for women to be considered on the basis of their gifts and experience for the episcopate. It is no longer viable that suitable candidates for the most senior positions in the church are overlooked because of their gender. Gifts not gender must be the basis for all appointments in our church.

It is often said that in ordaining women the church bowed to secular pressure and women bishops would be a step too far. This argument ignores the many secularising pressures that have prevented the churches from hearing God’s call to both women and men to participate fully in the life and leadership of the Church. Last year, Harriet Harris and I edited a volume of essays, The Call for Women Bishops. The articles came from all over the Anglican Communion – Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England – and were written by archbishops, bishops (male and female), laypeople from different walks of life, and priests. Almost all of them said this: that in their part of the world it was not scripture or theology or ecclesiology which prevented the admission of women to the episcopate but cultural forces – patriarchy, the fear of something new, and unquestioned acceptance of their society’s roles for women.

It is also argued that women bishops threaten church unity, but our contributors maintained quite the reverse. Those from Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism said that we should get on with what we have started and maintain our integrity as Anglicans by admitting women to all three orders of the historic three-fold order of ministry (the diaconate, the priesthood and the episcopate). Contributors from Protestant churches said that church unity would be furthered with them if we had women bishops; for example, for the Methodists, the absence of women in positions of oversight was a stumbling block in their recent talks with the Church of England.

Women and men are made in the image and likeness of God. If that is true – and the Bible does teach it! – it is vital that women and men see themselves reflected in all areas of our church’s life. That theology must be made incarnate. It is time for the Church of England to admit women to the episcopate and be true to its own theology.