By the narrowest of margins the Church of England has taken another step away from the Scriptures. After 17 years of discussion the Church’s General Synod has voted to approve of women becoming priests, a term whose associations with sacrifice many are happy to accept while others use it purely as another form of the word presbyter. It is doubtless a measure of the sacramentalism of the present Church of England that opposition seems to have been stronger to the possibility of a woman administering the Lord’s Supper than to a woman preaching the Word. In fact, well over a thousand women have already been ordained to the office of deacon, the basic difference between the two offices being no more than that the priest may dispense the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper but the deacon may not. This, of course, is not the Scriptural distinction between the offices of deacon and presbyter, or elder.
The Church of England had already allowed women to become ministers, albeit incomplete ministers — as deacons. That this was permitted indicates the willingness, so manifest in many other directions, to disregard the plain teaching of the Bible, expressed in this connection with
crystal clarity in the words of Paul, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man” (1 Tim. 2: 12). We must remember that the Epistles of Paul are on the same inspired and authoritative footing as the other Scriptures (see 2 Pet. 3: 16).
Opposition was strongest from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. John Gummer, for instance, who is Secretary of State for Agriculture, spoke against the change on Scriptural grounds, but held out the possibility of fresh revelation from heaven which would make the change possible. But in a school of thought which is prepared to accept the authority of tradition as well as Scripture this need not be surprising.
But where was the evangelical party? Yes, it had representatives present, who would surely claim to take Scripture seriously, and to take Scripture as the one source of religious authority. Sadly, evangelicals are strangely divided on the issue, and too many have devoted tremendous energy to an attempt to show that Scripture, suitably interpreted, does not oppose women in the ministry. They may have satisfied themselves, but they cannot have the approval of Him who gave the revelation which is Scripture.
K.D.M.