[LST] Anglican agony - The Hindu: Mobile Edition

http://m.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/anglican-agony/article4156950.ece/?secid=3051

Anglican agony
2 December 2012
The Church of England has seemingly
ended up installing for itself a stained
glass ceiling. The veto that the proposal
to ordain women to the episcopate
suffered at its general synod in London,
marked a moral setback that questions
the very credibility of the institution in
this age and time.
The Church of England has seemingly
ended up installing for itself a stained
glass ceiling. The veto that the proposal
to ordain women to the episcopate
suffered at its general synod in London,
marked a moral setback that questions
the very credibility of the institution in
this age and time. An enlightened
outcome was expected from the church
that had two decades ago pushed through
reforms to let women be priests, albeit
after some resistance: a third of the
clergy today are women. But the vote
instead ended up exposing bitter divisions
in the Anglican communion that has faced
years of wrangling between traditionalists
and liberals over questions including
women and gay clergy. The bar spells
indefensible discrimination. Many
Christians consider it a paradox that while
their religion proclaims a gospel of
equality, a large part of the church sees a
section of its members as unfit to lead it.
There may be varying theological
interpretations of whether the elevation
of women would go against the church's
fundamental tenets, and even whether
the fact of Jesus's 12 apostles being men
held any prescriptive weight. But by not
bringing the barriers down, the church
risks giving the impression that it believes
only men can 'represent' god. Indeed,
there can be no rationale to offer now —
except perhaps that the vote wouldn't
anger the Vatican, which has a hard-as-
nails position against the appointment of
women even as priests.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams,
the spiritual leader of the Anglican
church, has promptly accused elements
within it as being "wilfully blind" to
societal trends. But he should take some
of the blame for not having provided
aggressive enough leadership on this
critical issue in the run-up to the vote.
His successor-in-waiting, Justin Welby, to
whom the synod vote is equally a blow,
has asserted that there would be women
bishops, only it's going to take "some
time, some care, and some prudence."
Significantly, at the synod vote the
bishops and the clergy backed the move
in sufficient numbers. The representatives
of lay churchgoers are the ones who
made the difference, by a mere six votes.
All is not lost, and it would appear that
the church has indeed voted in favour of
the principle involved. Perhaps it is now a
question of finding a way forward, marked
by prudent consensus and crisis-
management. Although the church will
not be able to bring up the plans again till
2015 when a new general synod is in
place, there are ways in which its top
echelons will be able to revive the
initiative in the next few months. This
they should do. It is important for the C of E to be a modern church in touch with
reality. The glass ceiling needs to be
broken.