The Church of England 2013 style

It was once stated that the Church of England was the nation’s treasure. In consideration of recent statements and events, the treasure is losing some of its value.

Last week the Church in Wales, the Welsh Anglican section, decided to appoint women as Bishops. The only surprise there was that it took them so long to do so. The Archbishop of Wales is also an arch liberal and made the astounding and somewhat arrogant pronouncement that it was ‘theologically correct’. The archbishop might have justified his questionable statement with theology, rather than I suspect his reliance on the (secular) Equality Act.

If we should approach this topic with the same intellectual approach that lawyers give to any controversial matter, we would have to come to the conclusion that nowhere in Scripture is there any grounds for the archbishop’s statement.

Jesus was supported financially in His ministry by women and by their devoted support. Jesus appointed Apostles and had the opportunity to appoint a woman, but did not. For two thousand years the Christian Church has not, and the majority still have not, appointed women. Is this not a fact to ponder on?

The usual response is to refer to the high place women attain in many occupations, and rightly so. The Church is not a secular organisation; it is to function in accordance with God’s Word, and as stated, that Word does not appoint women as leaders in the Church.

The Church of England will meet in November and will follow the same path as Wales has done, have no doubt; if the present voting system should not support it, the system will be changed. The Archbishop has signalled his determination to push it through.


Therefore if the Church is to act with integrity, it must come clean and say
‘we want to appoint women to be bishops. We know we are not
conforming to Scripture, but we do want to popular with society
so are substituting the Bible for the Equality and Diversity Act.
We have already conformed to the Act by sanctioning civil
partnerships so that we may in the near future appoint a man in a
same sex relationship to the office of bishop’.

I readily agree that (some) women speak with far more common sense and commitment than many men, and are more worthwhile to listen to, especially some American women I have heard; but we must decide whether the Church is to abandon Scripture or abide by it.

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Congratulations to the new Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler.
Bishop Butler states his priority is going to be tackling poverty.

Silly me; I thought it might be preaching the gospel so that more people would attend Church.