Women and Holy Orders

Being the Report of a Commission appointed by
the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
Published by the Church Information Office, London. Dec. 1966

CHAPTER I

Why has the Question been re-opened now?

11 We have first considered the question why, at this particular juncture, the matter has been raised at all. The demand has not been voiced in the Church of England so far as we know until this century; it is generally admitted that such a step would be revolutionary and contrary to an original, long and strong tradition accepted almost universally throughout Christendom. There appear to us to be four main reasons why the question is raised now.

12 (a) The ‘emancipation’ of women

Women have now been accepted into almost every profession and taken their place competently alongside men. It is therefore understandable that the question should be raised whether women should be admitted also to Holy Orders.

13 We note that even those most strongly in favour of the ordination of women regard this as only a minor argument, though they point out that many of the objections (from a practical point of view) to the ordination of women at present advanced are precisely the same as those that were hotly argued against the admission of women to such professions as medicine, diplomacy, politics and the law, and which have in experience been shown to be groundless.

14 (b) The new insights awakened by the spirit of the tunes

It is pointed out that throughout Christian history there have been moments of re-awakening when institutions, practices and beliefs which have been tolerated for centuries are found to be intolerable or insufficient. Thus it was not till the nineteenth century that society in general came to appreciate the enormity of slavery. In our own century we have come to appreciate the insufficiency of much of the eucharistic teaching of past centuries, a recognition which is seen in a revival of the centrality of the Holy Communion in worship. So, it is argued, are we being led to recognise a basic insufficiency in the traditional attitude of the Church to women and Holy Orders. The inferiority of women, accepted as axiomatic almost up to our own day, and justified by now discredited biological and psychological assumptions, is now seen to be no longer self-evident. Why, it is now asked, should a person, solely on the ground of her having been born female, be

debarred from a priestly function and office to which, so she believes, she has the inward calling, and for which she has the natural ability, capacity, and professional qualifications?

15 (c) The failure of the Church to provide an adequate ministry for women

The argument in the preceding paragraph is closely allied to the wider and growing recognition by the Church that there is a crucial need for a re-statement of the theology of the ministry, especially that of the laity, and of the right use and training of the laity in the service of the Church. If the Church has failed to enable the laity to take their place adequately in its total ministerial function, it has even more decisively not provided a channel whereby those women who believe themselves to be called by God to some ordained ministry in his Church are given opportunity for the exercise of that vocation. The history of the Order of Deaconesses in our own Church is illustrative of the uncertainty and lack of clear purpose which has bedevilled thought and action in this matter.

16 For those who hold that the demand for the ordination of women to the priesthood is one aspect of a more general dissatisfaction, the question: Should women be ordained priests? is a secondary one. The greater problem is to find a way of satisfying a deeper need for a ministry which gives to all their full place and their full responsibility.

17 (d) The shortage of clergy

At the present time there is a shortage of clergy and it is argued that especially in rural areas the pastoral responsibilities of the Church could be better discharged by ordaining women than by leaving parishes unserved by a resident priest.

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