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What we really need are women bishopsBy June Osborne 19/11/2006
For a very brief moment on Thursday morning I thought about giving up being the Dean of Salisbury. Perhaps instead I could apply to be the chairman of English Heritage, or run a charity shop, or farm alpacas? Such is the power we project onto the reported utterances of our leaders that a few words are capable of demoralising the faithful. I was on my way to speak to a gathering of clergy in Norwich when I read first the headline "Williams: We may rethink women priests" and then articles in several papers suggesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, had made a series of lukewarm comments about the experience of ordaining women. I'm sure I wasn't the only woman priest who in the midst of her duties that day thought quietly "Why do I bother? Why do I go on giving my life to an institution that is being dragged shamefully slowly towards a truth which the rest of society has long since embraced, that people should be judged on their character and competencies and not according to gender?" I believe and trust in the Archbishop of Canterbury, whoever he happens to be, and so I attribute to his words great significance. It's why his opinions make headlines and are open to being misrepresented. It didn't take me long to come to my senses. The Norwich clergy helped because those who came to hear me represented the current reality of our life in the Church of England. Like everywhere else, they've had more recruits than in years gone by, but with even greater diversity of lifestyles and pathways into priesthood. About a quarter of the group were women and all brought to our topic for the day - "pastoral care" - deep Christian devotion and a palpable love for the communities they serve. With their help I recovered my bearings. What I'd read simply didn't match what I've known in the almost 20 years since women first became "clergy". I've watched women bring profound benefits to the Church of England, benefits that are sometimes more apparent to those not so deeply involved with matters of attendance or governance than they are to those who are immersed in its life. I think of those who have told me how they joined or returned to church membership because they saw women being taken seriously, using properly their God-given gifts and wisdom. I think of the pleasure felt and expressed by people of all backgrounds when they see men and women working together as colleagues in church. The thousands of people who come to events at Salisbury Cathedral see spiritual authority shared to great effect. They are better able to relate to what we do because it feels and is manifestly normal. Men-only clubs continue to have a quaint value but the norm in church and society is men and women celebrating their complementary gifts and outlooks. As a result I know many churches where the experience of a woman priest makes people say "Never again will we return to an all-male team". It's what the archbishop meant by saying that ordained women had "somehow got into the bloodstream" of the church, and that he "doesn't give it a second thought these days in terms of worship". I think, too, of the distinctive grace that women have brought to what the church does. They bless people's lives with their own brand of care, for those getting married, having children, finding faith or journeying towards death. The world is full of personal thresholds and tribulations. What women do to enhance the joy, to bring comfort and nourish hope is no better or worse than men, but is worthy of respect. I suspect that one day we'll look back with more gratitude for the fresh insights that have been brought to what it means to be a priest. Any church would envy us the dedication and spirituality of our women clergy. I also know that there's more to come. The Church of England is yet to feel the full impact of women's leadership because, by and large, women are still treated as its foot soldiers. They are prohibited by law from being bishops and fewer than 40 of the 2,000 ordained women hold senior appointments. It leaves little scope for them to shape the culture of the institution. Where women do share in the directing of power and authority there is a lot of evidence that their male colleagues find themselves more at ease, helped in putting together their private and public selves, and better able to use their intuition. Which is why the Archbishop of Canterbury knows that, with as much consensus as we can manage, he must lead the Church into an era where women can be bishops. That further step into women's leadership is not easy for our friends in the Roman Catholic Church - and this coming week Rowan visits Rome - where the policy is not to permit official discussions of women's ordination, nor for those in our own Anglican family who disagree with this development. Whilst we will do everything in our power to do right by such relationships, appeasement is in no one's best interest. Ordaining women is a decision we've taken. Attempts to unsettle that decision are on the whole pernicious. Has the ordination of women utterly transformed the Church of England? Of course not. It was never intended to be a cure-all solution, but in time we will surely see the good which comes from the full breadth of human experience better influencing our life. When boys-only schools are tempted to introduce girls in order to add value or socialise the lives of the boys, it's invariably a mistake. Educating boys and girls together only justifies itself when they are seen as two halves of a single humanity, with the right to equal shares of what learning has to offer. What women have brought to the Church is exactly the same as they've brought to education, and also to science, medicine, the law, politics and the rest. They've brought themselves. In that sense they will profoundly transform the Church, and of that there is no doubt. • The Very Rev June
Osborne is Dean of Salisbury
See also Church to think again The Pope's Critics come out of the closet Vindication of the Rights of Women A Good Christian Women Clergy in changing times |
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