Women in holy orders and God's salvation

(Talking Points)

If the Church "ordains" women into any of the Three Orders of the Ministry, does this Act in any way affect the salvation of souls? No and Yes, depending on how you look at it! Read on, in 1. & 2. below.

1. For most evangelically-minded western Christians the answer is a resounding No! This is because they see the primary relation within Christianity to be between the Lord Jesus Christ and the individual person who repents, believes and is saved from the prospect of hell and into the sure hope of heaven. From now on, they say, he has the eternal security of the true believer for he is in the (invisible) Church of God, one of the elect. And he can only fall totally from this state by the most wicked kind of sin, such as blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

So on earth in anticipation of heaven he joins an [Episcopal] church where he shares in its common life and witness, knowing that his salvation is assured by grace. If this church proclaims heresy he is hurt and protests; but, it does not affect his personal salvation. If this church is disordered through the bad behavior of the clergy, he is hurt and protests but his individual salvation is assured. And so on. If the church goes ahead and appoints women deacons or presbyters, which he thinks is against God's plan in Scripture, he is hurt and protests, but since he holds that it does not affect his secured salvation, he tolerates it and may even come to appreciate the gifts and sweetness of the women ministers.

2. For a person born in a society and culture, where individualism [related to theories of human rights and personal autonomy] is not present as we have known it in the West in recent times, the answer is a clear Yes! Here anything that is contrary to the declared mind and will of the Lord Christ for his Church must affect the proclamation of, and the experience of, salvation in the church.

In this patristic (and some modern non-western) contexts salvation is seen first of all as that which God provides for his elect people, what Christ the Savior provides for his Church, for those who believe on his Name and are his disciples - His Body, the Household of God. And Salvation comes in three tenses - By his death and exaltation Christ has once and for ever purchased for God a new people bound to him by a new covenant and thus salvation has been provided - God has saved his people; by the presence of the Spirit working in human beings God's covenant people is now being called out of the world & is being saved in this world - saved from the power of sin, the world and the flesh as a forgiven, faithful people in hope of that which God will grant in the future; by the Second Advent of the Lord there will be full and complete salvation for the Body of Christ, the people of God, at the End time after the resurrection of the dead and the entering into the fullness of the life of the kingdom of God.

Here everything that the Church does in the present is aimed at edifying those who are "being saved by God" for they are those who in Christ are saved and who will be in Christ fully saved and redeemed at the Last Day. The ordering of the Church and her sacraments, the teaching of the baptized and the evangelization of the outsiders, and the nature of her liturgy and doctrine - ALL these are part of the being saved experience of the Church, which in Christ has been saved and in Christ will be saved by grace.

Thus for the Church that is being saved to do that which is contrary to the will of the Lord is sinful and it affects the work of salvation, of sanctification and of deification. To ordain and deploy women as clergy in any of the Three Orders is contrary to the will of the Lord and therefore must affect the work of the Lord in his saving of his covenant people. Just how it does affect we cannot always tell, but it most surely does have an affect and it is one that is not for edification toward salvation but is in both the short & long term toward the contrary.

In the One Body are many members, in the Household that are many members, and all - each and everyone therein -- are affected together by the state of the Body and the Household. Especially when a major organ of the body is sick so the whole Body with all the members is sick - likewise in the Body of Christ. If the Ministry is disordered then eventually the whole Body will be.

The fact that God is the God of abundant mercy and that he is full of loving kindness and love towards sinners must not blind our eyes to the fact that he has made known his will and that his will is one will in which are many parts. To disobey any part is to sin and to affect the receiving of salvation. To repent, make amends and be obedient is to enjoy the receiving of salvation by grace through faith.

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The Revd Dr Peter Toon & the Revd Dr Louis Tarsitano November 16 2003