DIACONALLY

Ordinangst is frankly stunned that he now has followers on twitter (thank you @thechurchmouse and @twurchofengland) and even received some comments back on his first blog.  Very gratifying.  I am conscious that this next blog represents something of a hand grenade, for which I apologise.  My aim is not to offend anyone but I do think the Church is avoiding really talking about this at the moment:  So here goes….Ordinangst’s take on Women and Gay bishops (I am neither of the first two, and very much doubt I will end up being the third….)

 Speaking from a secular point of view the treatment of both women and gay people by the Church as an employer is outrageous.  In no other career would a gay person or a woman tolerate a situation where they are precluded from getting the “top job” on the grounds of their gender or their sexuality.  I am amazed by the grace shown by both groups in the church, and surprised that they haven’t pushed to have this issue to be examined by the European Court of Human Rights.

This discrimination goes so fundamentally against the accepted behaviours of our society that, whether we like it or not, the Church is being positioned as judgemental and hopelessly “behind the times” by the media (the latter is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a fact).  This is not helping us in what should be our main mission – encouraging the un-churched back into church.  It is also allowing African members of the Anglican church to victimise gay people which (whatever your views on homosexuality) clearly must not be tolerated.  Jesus commanded us to love one another after all………

I am  not naïve enough to think that the issues surrounding women and gay bishops are the same and I know they shouldn’t be linked but it does strike me that there are two areas of  commonality in the debate:

a.       Accepting both requires us to re-examine how we interpret scripture.  It seems odd to Ordinangst that some people in the church are happy to allow women priests and ignore Paul’s views on the subject, but are happy to use Paul’s views on homosexuality to be against homosexual priests (the Evanglicals) or do the opposite (Anglo Catholics).  This is clearly bonkers.  We either are guided by scripture on both subjects (and while we are at it let’s throw in divorce, which is unless I am mistaken the only one of the three that Jesus spoke about), or we aren’t.  Dear Church I would like some guidance on this please.  I don’t know where I stand on either issue and my sense is it certainly isn't being addressed (actively avoided) at theological colleges. 

b.      Is Ordinangst silly to think the horse has already bolted on both issues?  As a Church we have accepted both women and gay people into the priesthood.  Given this, Ordinangst thinks it is a nonsense (both legally and spiritually) to stop people from these groups becoming bishops.  Are we really saying that we demand a different standard of moral behaviour or a different gender from a bishop than we do from an Archdeacon?  Really?