Women Priests on BBC TV Shows

Love365 · Feb 13, 2023

The Church of England has women priests and women bishops.

Should there be more BBC TV shows about them?

tampasteve · Feb 13, 2023

The Vicar of Dibley immediately comes to mind. I used to enjoy that show when I was younger, they played it on PBS on Saturday evenings.

Paidiske · Feb 13, 2023

Look, I'd love to see more popular culture (like TV shows) that actually does a fair job of exploring and showing what church is really like, what ministry is really like, and so on. Including more characters with experience close to mine. Mostly because on the whole, what I see in popular culture either badly misrepresents the situation or treats it as a joke.

But women priests specifically? To the extent that we're part of that reality, sure. But I'm not sure we need to make that the point of the whole thing.

Philip_B · Feb 13, 2023

Women clergy seem to make a reasonable showing in Midsomer Murders, which is kind of nice because they are simply part of the fabric rather than the issue. Mind you one or two of them have been villains as well!

timothyu · Feb 13, 2023

tampasteve said:
The Vicar or Dibley

No no no no .. yes!

Arcangl86 · Feb 15, 2023

Love365 said:
The Church of England has women priests and women bishops.

Should there be more BBC TV shows about them?

Why?

Love365 · Feb 15, 2023

Arcangl86 said:
Why?

It would help people see women priests as normal.

I want the Catholic Church to make women priests, bishops, and cardinals.

Love365 · Feb 20, 2023

The show Father Brown is set in the past.

Arcangl86 · Feb 20, 2023

Love365 said:
It would help people see women priests as normal.

I want the Catholic Church to make women priests, bishops, and cardinals.

Women priests and pastors have been around for 50 years. If they haven't been normalized by now another show about them isn't going to change anything.

Paidiske · Feb 20, 2023

To be fair, @Arcangl86, that's a particularly American viewpoint. For example, the diocese I'm in now has only been ordaining women for fifteen years, and I still meet plenty of Anglicans (if not very active ones) who are meeting a woman priest for the first time.

Arcangl86 · Feb 20, 2023

Paidiske said:
To be fair, @Arcangl86, that's a particularly American viewpoint. For example, the diocese I'm in now has only been ordaining women for fifteen years, and I still meet plenty of Anglicans (if not very active ones) who are meeting a woman priest for the first time.

That's true and I did think about that before posting. But in the sense of normalizing the idea enough for the Catholic Church to consider it, the thousands, if not tens of thousands, or women being ordained in one of the largest countries in the world is going to have more of an impact then another show on the BBC.

Paidiske · Feb 20, 2023

I think it's pretty clear that neither are going to shift the Catholic church. When/if they change, it will be on their terms.

timothyu · Feb 20, 2023

TV is a form of brain massaging. It gets people used to a concept. But shows like people's memories are short lived.

Arcangl86 · Feb 20, 2023

Paidiske said:
I think it's pretty clear that neither are going to shift the Catholic church. When/if they change, it will be on their terms.

A professor once joked that if the CC ever did decide to ordain women the document announcing it would start with "As the Holy Catholic Church has always taught" and honestly, that ran true to me. It won't be any "normalization" of women's ordination because that would imply that the teaching of the church can be shifted by society.

ETA: It's also worth saying that as far as the CC is concerned most of our priests aren't really priests anyway.

Paidiske · Feb 20, 2023

Arcangl86 said:
ETA: It's also worth saying that as far as the CC is concerned most of our priests aren't really priests anyway.

That's true, but they are more polite about the blokes, generally.

Eg. There was one parish I looked at applying for, but they didn't have a building of their own, they were worshipping in a Catholic church building. The ad for the position made it very clear that only men need apply, because the Catholics would tolerate that, but not a woman.

Love365 · Feb 20, 2023

In Canada a Catholic nun got permission to do a wedding.

They had a priest shortage.

RileyG · Mar 4, 2023

The Vicar of Dibley. Too bad I didn't finish the show when it was streaming on netflix.

RileyG · Mar 4, 2023

Love365 said:
In Canada a Catholic nun got permission to do a wedding.

They had a priest shortage.

God bless Canada

Paidiske · Mar 4, 2023

The vicar of Dibley is a complicated piece of pop culture. On the one hand, yes, the central character is a woman who's a priest. On the other hand, despite some very true to life moments, it's comedy that often descends to farce. It's not a very good reflection of the reality of ministry, let alone anything specific to women's experience.

Also, because it's really the only thing out there that's so well known, it tends to become the cultural referent for women in ordained ministry. The comparisons and jokes can become very tiresome.

RileyG · Mar 4, 2023

Paidiske said:
The vicar of Dibley is a complicated piece of pop culture. On the one hand, yes, the central character is a woman who's a priest. On the other hand, despite some very true to life moments, it's comedy that often descends to farce. It's not a very good reflection of the reality of ministry, let alone anything specific to women's experience.

Also, because it's really the only thing out there that's so well known, it tends to become the cultural referent for women in ordained ministry. The comparisons and jokes can become very tiresome.

I've only seen a few episodes. I cannot really comment on it beyond that.

Women Priests on BBC TV Shows

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