Revolutionary movements have taken root at a very fast rate and it's taking over everywhere, in earlier times traditions
have always been subtly altered little by little in order to “suit the times”,
but now it’s no longer so subtle instead anti-traditionalist and liberal movements
are coming from behind closed doors, speaking in hushed voices, now they speak
openly seeking to destroy every ounce of establish convention and to upset the natural order of
things which could only lead to anarchy and chaos, the rules that were once
seen as set ,rigid and vital to the maintenance of our orderly society are now being tossed out the window in favour
of relativism. Sad to say this attitude is not limited solely to the
irreligious as it once was but now it’s creeping into churches all over the
world, the rules that were once upheld as being set in stone are now called outdated
and in need of reform. I am of course
speaking to the issue of ordination of women, a topic that has been the subject
of controversy and debate in most of the world’s major Christian denominations.
In November of last year the General Synod of the Church of
England had a debate on whether or not women should or should not be ordained
as Bishops in the Church of England after long and rigorous deliberation the Synod decided not to
allow the ordination of female bishops. That vote was not very well received in
the court of public opinion many especially the British media made every effort
to vilify the Council, accusing the
Synod of being gender biased and old fashion, a sentiment that was apparently shared by many in the
Government including Prime Minister David Cameron (a conservative in name
only), a man who calls himself a devout Anglican yet he also attacked the Synod
stating that it was his own personal opinion that women should be allowed to be bishops, he
further went on to state he was very sad and disappointed at their decision, but I really must ask Mr. Cameron since when
was he a clergyman or layman? Since when does he have a vote in the General
Synod, since when does the government have the right to bully the Church into getting
what it wants, if the General Synod votes to not allow women bishops then that
should be the end of the matter unfortunately this is not so and it’s not hard to see why, after
all looking at it from a logical point of view there is a double standard in
the whole process is there not, why allow women to be priest anyhow if they can’t
become bishops? It does seem quite silly doesn't it.
Turning to the Catholics and the Orthodox Churches , those two groups have a tendency to be more
counterrevolutionary than any others, guided by the strict rules of Canon law
which clearly states that only men can be serve as priest (sure women are
ordained as Nuns, but that’s a whole different story), but even within those
ranks there are still dissenting views as some would seek to upset the balance
of power in favour of greater liberalization of the Church
Another group of
focus is the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a growing worldwide movement it’s now the largest and most
powerful religious organization here in Jamaica, the debate on female
ordination has been raging through its
membership in the world , at present the
position put forward by the central body of the General Conference is in line
with traditional and conservative principles but all is not well in paradise,
In the summer of last year both the
Pacific and Columbia Union Conferences of the church voted to break
ranks with the main hierarchy and authorize the ordination of female pastors,
regardless of the fact that they were blasted
by the World Church body for going
against both biblical writings and the traditional values as set forth by the
church, they paid no heed to the reprimand. To make matters worse the debate is
far from over as more and more conferences and unions are set to join them in their
outright rebellion against the Church hierarchy.
Those in favour of
female ordination use arguments such as “God can use anyone”, “Women were among the early
church founders”, “The Holy Spirit can be poured out on both men and women as
long the person is willing” and all
sorts of bollocks , sure God can use a woman to do his work but that does not mean it should be as an ordained minister, that's what the laity is for. Another claim put forward by the liberals is that banning
female ordination is outdated, a relic from a patriarchal society with no place
in the modern world , that stance is also a bogus one, I see no reason why God would explicitly forbid something in the ancient times and then turn around and give license to it the modern age, human thinking may change over the centuries, God does not. some also claim that if women are allowed to rise to the highest
ranks in the secular world, shouldn't the same thing apply to religion?, another ludicrous argument if you ask me,
All these arguments
all have one thing in common, all they do is appeal to emotion and personal sentiments
subject to one’s own narrow view of the world while at the same time ignoring
both scriptural and other non-canonical
guidelines that clearly oppose the ordination of women, the very Bible itself
which churches claims to follow has been quite clear from the days of the
levitical priesthood to Jesus’ selection of his apostles that only men should ever be allowed to serve as priest, of
course women do have their roles to play too but NOT as ordained ministers. I
find it quite ironic that the Catholics the only church known to openly make a
case against sola scriptura, is actually acquiescent with the scriptures in
this regard, while protestant churches openly defy the Bible’s instructions on
female ordination yet claim that it is the only rule of their practice of
faith, sounds a bit hypocritical doesn't it.
I see no reason why Christian churches should change their rules
to be in line with temporal principles, quite contrary to the liberal argument that
the church should “become more modern”, the Bible in Daniel 7 refers to The Holy Father as the “Ancient of
Days” , or is the Church going to suggest that God himself should “get with the
times” as well. A religion that has priestesses is not a Christian religion a
fact well shown by centuries of history, God himself designed a totally male dominated
priesthood in Exodus 28 in order to separate it from the neighbouring pagan religions
all of which were headed by high priestesses, Throughout the long centuries of
Church history from the time of the apostles through to modern times male
dominated clergy has always been the order of the day as was stated by the apostle St Paul who said in 1 Timothy 2:
12 "I suffer not a woman to teach, or to usurp authority over the man.
Church of England Debate over women Bishops
Seventh Day Adventist Debate on female ordination.
Very interesting story indeed. I recently became ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church and I am a female. While I did grow up Catholic, I decided that being a minister for the Presbyterian Church was a better fit for me. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteUniversal Life Church? never heard of them, if your Church chooses to ordain women then so be it, but know that doing so is inconistent with both scripture and tradition, your argument abou it being a better fit for you was already addressed in the post (see the section concerning "appealm to emotion"), the fact is that no where in the old and new testaments was such an action ever sanctioned
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