No Female Bishops for the Church in Wales

A bill to allow the ordination of female Bishops into the Church in Wales was narrowly defeated by 3 votes by the House of the Clergy at the beginning of this month. It was defeated by only 3 votes, a press release at the Church in Wales reports.. Arch Bishop Barry Morgan is said to be disapointed, but he’s not giving up hope. The Bill for ordination of Women Priests was defeated the first time it was proposed as well.

This bill has been 11 years in the comming, since the original ordination of woment priests, and it shows precisely how slow the Church In Wales is moving, and how far behind the times it actually is. The Church is meant to represent the people to God, and it’s currently failing simply to represent the people.

The problems comes, presumably, from the wrightings of St Paul, who was writing in a different time, 2000 years ago. His views on women were a little more modern than the Jews at the time, not what we would today call “progressive”. His wrightings on how women should be kept down, seen and not heard, to always defer to the husband for learning have been the main reasons used for holding back women. There are also, of course, examples in the Old Testament, but the Anglican Church says that we should “reinterperet the Old Testament in Light of the New”. It is also Paul, by the way, who also didn’t like the idea of Gay men. That is not to say that Paul didn’t have a few good things to say, just the ones seemed the most adamant about appear to be the ones that have caused the most problems for the Church.

The main argument against not changing, or going against these teachings is the fear that by moving away from the Book, they are making a mockery of everything that they believe. “Picking and Choosing” from the Bible, thus using it only to futher certain ends. Some people hold that you should follow all of it, even the distasteful bits, because that’s how it should be. (This argument is flawed, and there are many posts elsewhere on this blog about that. What would Jesus say about an exclusionary group?)

I for one hope that this bill is passed when it’s next presented. 3 votes is not a lot of hearts to sway, and I’m pretty sure some persuasive arguments, and a few judicious prayers should do it.

Thanks,

Black Xanthus