ACNS 2545 - AUSTRALIA - 24 July 2001

Dr Ann Young - against Women Bishops (Part I)

23 July 2001

Your Grace, fellow members of Synod.

As in 1998,my role is to present an alternative to the support for the move
to ordain women as bishops in the Anglican Church of Australia.

During the past 3 years, I - like many of you and many others in the
church - have had to ask myself 'am I opposed to this because of habit or
perversity or reluctance to change?' I have had the privilege of working
with a group of people for whom I have had increasing liking and respect,
although as Muriel has noted, we and other members of the Group have not
changed our theological position. Professional colleagues obviously think
mine is inconsistent with my professional career path. Most of the women in
my family and several of my close friends - including Christian ones - think
I am just plain wrong. If it takes a generation to achieve social change,
does the church have to wait a generation to achieve social change, does the
church have to wait for diehards like me to get off synods before 'progress'
can be made? I often wish I could support the move for ordination, but two
things stop me doing so - the plain reading of Scripture, and the practice
of the church over 2000 years.

In salvation, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female. But in my mind, it does not follow that responsibility for feeding
and correcting the flock of God, for administering the sacraments instituted
by Christ, and for teaching sound doctrine is gender non-specific. If the
leadership role of men rested only on one or two verses in the letters of St
Paul, then I might be convinced that it was a practice for that time, but
not binding us now. However, that is not the case. As I read it, the
consistent teaching of Scripture is that men have the responsibility under
God to take these roles. It was so in the Old Testament times, with a few
rare exceptions. There is no doubt that Jesus gave new and unheard dignity
to women, and they were key supporters of his ministry. Yet he did not
appoint any women as disciples. Was this just because it would have gone
against the demands of social norms. The Holy Spirit 'brought to mind all
that Jesus had taught'. Yet the apostles led by Him chose no women, only
men, to fill the leadership roles in those decades of the church.

Was that just for then? Is the holy Spirit leading us to change now?
Obviously, many people think so, but I am uncomfortable with the arguments
put forward to in support of this idea. Since the ordination of women to the
priesthood was authorized, the concept of reception has been widely
promoted. This means that if the move is of God, then it will succeed, and
if not, it will fail. This strikes me as dubious on both theological and
historical grounds.