PloverWing
Episcopalian
- May 5, 2012
- 4,398
- 5,097
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Anglican
- Marital Status
- Married
There doesn't have to be a reason -- like strength or fitness for leadership -- to get us to the situation of male leadership in the church. The ancient Christian church arose in a culture in which certain hierarchies were taken for granted: men over women, masters over slaves, rulers over subjects. The ancient church mostly kept these structures in place (although with an emphasis that those in power should exercise their power benevolently and sacrificially, after the example of Jesus). The later church didn't want to overturn too many precedents from the early church, lest important spiritual truths from the early church be lost. Hence, male leadership persisted, out of this kind of caution.Honestly, I'm not arguing that it is true, I am only offering it as a hypothetical. It may well be true. I do not know. What I do know is that the original apostolic Churches are guided by the Holy Spirit and that the original apostolic Churches have only ever put men in leadership positions. That tells me there is some spiritual reason for it.
I agree with you that the Catholic and Orthodox churches are guided by the Holy Spirit, and have been since the beginning. I believe that my church and the other Protestant churches are guided by the Spirit as well. Discerning which parts of the church's life are the Spirit's guidance and which parts are human cultural values is not easy. Your church leans toward conserving more things, and my church tends to reform more things. At the Last Day, we will presumably find out where we have discarded things we ought to have kept, and kept things we ought to have discarded.
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