The World Needs Women Priests

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The Antiochian Orthodox Church?!

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Nope.
All who believe in Jesus and confess him as Lord and Saviour are reconciled to God, Romans 5:11, 2 Corinthians 5:18, are saved, Acts of the Apostles 4:12, Romans 10:9, have eternal life, John 6:40, are God's children, John 1:12, Romans 8:16-17. All who are in Christ have every spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1:3, belong to God and cannot be snatched from his hand, John 10:29. We are made by God in his image, Genesis 1:26-27 and all have the same heavenly Father.
Jesus told his disciples we are to be salt and light, Matthew 5:13-16, to be his witnesses, Acts of the Apostle 1:8, to make disciples and teach others about him, Matthew 28:19-20, to love as he loved us, John 13:34. We have been told to seek first the Kingdom of God, Matthew 6:33, to forgive one another Matthew 6:12, Luke 6:37, Luke 17:3-4 and to love our enemies, Matthew 5:44-48. We have been shown what life in the Kingdom looks like, and we believe and confess that Christ will one day return as king.
Jesus said that he would send his Holy Spirit to live in us, and the Spirit was poured out on the believers at Pentecost. Romans 8, and other passages, teach that we should be filled with the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.

In the NT, there are two states - either people belong to God, walk in the light, have new natures, are born again- or they don't, and walk in the darkness, are "in the flesh" and dead in their sins.
That's it; you are with God, or against him, you have eternal life or you don't, you are in the light or in the darkness. All who belong to Christ and are his children and followers are part of the church; the Bride of Christ.
Jesus didn't talk about many churches and certainly did not say that there is a "correct" one and the followers of that church will be the ones who receive his Spirit.



All who are in Christ believe the same Gospel.

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Jesus said that he would build his church.
He said that it would be built on the Rock, not on Peter. In the OT God is the Rock and in the NT Jesus is the chief cornerstone. THE church is built on Jesus, the Rock, and the confession that Jesus is Christ and the Son of God. The Holy Spirit gives gifts to all Christians so that the church may be built up, Ephesians 4:11-12. I have received the Holy Spirit, and continue to do so, and do not worship in a building that is called a catholic church.
A church that is built on a fallible man will not survive; it would be like a house that is built on sand.

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John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

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No, they show we're reconciled to God.
The next verses show that folk are saved; you've misread it.



People are for CHRIST or against him.
Jesus also said that if people reject his followers, they are rejecting him - so what does that mean when you say that Anglicans, Baptists etc have not received the Spirit and are not the church?
A Christian cannot be born again, John 3:3, nor confess Jesus as Lord, 1 Corinthians 12:3 without the Spirit. Christians in the Anglican and other churches have received his Spirit and declare Jesus as Lord - if you are saying that they haven't, you are as good as rejecting them.
Think about what that means.



Those things that you mention are not the Gospel.
The Gospel is that Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, came to show us what God is like and how we could have a relationship with him.
Mankind had sinned, and the wages of sin is death, Romans 3:23; eternal separation from God. Jesus was the spotless Lamb of God, John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19-20, who laid down his life, John 10:11 to reconcile mankind to God 2 Corinthians 5:18. Three days later Jesus was raised from the dead, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, appeared to his disciples and later ascended into heaven. Before he did so he promised that he would send the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was poured out on all at Pentecost. One day Jesus will return again, in glory, as King and every knee will bow before him and confess that he is Lord.

This is summed up in the Nicene Creed.
Anyone on this forum who does not accept the Nicene Creed is not allowed to call themselves a Christian, under forum rules.
Differences in baptism, communion, preferred translations of the Bible, even women priests (which is what this thread is actually about) do not stop someone from believing the Gospel and the creed and being a Christian.



A church that is built on a man who denied Christ cannot stand either.

JESUS is the Rock; I am certain if Peter were here he would say the same thing.
When he and John healed the man at the Beautiful gate, Acts 3, he didn't say "Of course I could do this, I am the rock," - he said that he did not do this in his own power and pointed people to Jesus, Acts of the Apostles 3:12. When Cornelius fell at Peter's feet in reverence, Peter did not say, "that honour is due to me; I am the rock". He said "get up, I am only a man myself", Acts of the Apostles 10:26.
Peter preached the Gospel, was imprisoned and stood up to the Jews and did many miracles - but he was humble enough to know that he was only a man and not worthy of worship or honour. Legend says that he was crucified upside down because he believed he was unworthy to die the same way that Christ had died.
Some people seem have practically deified Peter today.

He wasn't even head of the church in Jerusalem; James was.

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Mark 9:40
Luke 10:16.




Which implies that those denominations do not have the Spirit - because apparently he wasn't promised to us.
Sorry to break it to you, but we can and we do.



Saying, or singing, "Jesus is Lord" is one thing; proclaiming that he is Lord of your life and living under his Lordship, is another.
Romans 10:9 says that if you declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart he has been raised from the dead, you will be saved.



Not at all.
The Gospel saves us; baptism, communion and women's ordination, don't.



I know; that's what I said.



So the verse "you are my friends if you do what I command you", John 15:14-15 doesn't apply to you?
Jesus died to reconcile us to God. Once we were his enemies, Colossians 1:21, and far away from him, Ephesians 2:13; now we have been reconciled, what does that make us?



Of course he was; I said that.
But you agreed that a church built on a human being could not stand - and now you are admitting that Peter was human.

Anyway, all this has gone way off topic of women priests, and I'm not arguing this point any more, or the thread will get closed for being off topic.
If you want to discuss this further, start a new thread.

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I'm an Anglican in the Church of England my church has a female priest, actually two at the moment because the female curate wss recently ordained. Now, knowing them, I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is in them..This comes across from what they do, what they say and the way they are. I know God is in them as much as I know the sky is blue. Assuming you accept that, and maybe you don't, how can you say that a woman priest who is indwelt by the Spirit, is not a real priest?

Hmmm! said:

I'm an Anglican in the Church of England my church has a female priest, actually two at the moment because the female curate wss recently ordained. Now, knowing them, I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is in them..This comes across from what they do, what they say and the way they are. I know God is in them as much as I know the sky is blue. Assuming you accept that, and maybe you don't, how can you say that a woman priest who is indwelt by the Spirit, is not a real priest?

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I do not doubt that there are many Anglican ministers who are good people.

Philip_B said:

The Fruit of the Spirit
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:22-26​

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How true!

Love365 said:

I grew up watching the Vicar of Dibley on PBS.

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The Vicar of Dibley was great.
It was based on a female vicar - or at least, she helped with some of the details.

Strong in Him said:

The Vicar of Dibley was great.
It was based on a female vicar - or at least, she helped with some of the details.

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The Vicar of Dibley was a complete farce which only served to stereotype severely strange views both of the Church of England as well as female priests.

I think it was both. There was a lot of farce (and stereotyping) but there were also some glimpses of the realities of church life.

Funnily enough, I don't really want more BBC comedies about clergy, though (Rev. was also worth watching). I'd like one made which reflects my own, Australian, context!

Paidiske said:

I think it was both. There was a lot of farce (and stereotyping) but there were also some glimpses of the realities of church life.

Funnily enough, I don't really want more BBC comedies about clergy, though (Rev. was also worth watching). I'd like one made which reflects my own, Australian, context!

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As I am sure you know, viewer ratings would not be that high when all viewers need to do is start attending services in your church.

bbbbbbb said:

As I am sure you know, viewer ratings would not be that high when all viewers need to do is start attending services in your church.

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I don't think it's comparable at all. Watching a TV show which tells stories about a context is very different from being part of that context. I know that other TV shows about clergy or churches had viewing audiences who never darkened the door of actual churches!

I think my comment was driven, in part, by feeling that on the whole Australians don't understand churches well at all. (As demonstrated by the fact that I, along with some other clergy, was once invited onto a TV show about priests, as part of a series about misunderstood and/or marginalised groups!)

Paidiske said:

I don't think it's comparable at all. Watching a TV show which tells stories about a context is very different from being part of that context. I know that other TV shows about clergy or churches had viewing audiences who never darkened the door of actual churches!

I think my comment was driven, in part, by feeling that on the whole Australians don't understand churches well at all. (As demonstrated by the fact that I, along with some other clergy, was once invited onto a TV show about priests, as part of a series about misunderstood and/or marginalised groups!)

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Your situation, sadly, is hardly unique to Australia. There are multitudes of young people here in the United States who have absolutely no knowledge of Christianity other than in the most general forms.