Female Priests

[trooper]

Andy,

Thanks for your reply. Though, from what I know (from an Anglo-Catholic perspective) it is precisely not the attitude or heart of the recipient that makes the Sacrament valid, but rather God through the priest. So, I would be concerned about the properness of the priest's ordination. I remain sceptical about women fitting the bill, but am open to conversion.

 

[Inside Edge]

I'm going to sit this one out for now so as to not overly influence other's input.

Problem is, we're all waiting to hear what you have to say!

 

[Fish and Bread]

In the Old Testament, God laid out many aspects of the law as simple tests of faith and obedience. Some of his instructions to the Hebrews really seemed to serve little if any purpose other than that. As St. Paul put it, the law was a disciplinarian.

In New Testament times, we are freed from the discipline of the law and live under grace. When God gives the church an instruction, it is generally for either our own good or the good of the world around us, and generally there is an explanation for what he asks of us, either explicit or implicit.

So, I think the impetus on those who feel that women can not serve as priests or ministers is to explain a) How in fits into the overall Christian ethos of men and women being equal before God and b) Where we're told by God definitively that we *can't* ordain women and God's explanation of why. I've seen point "a" addressed in a reasonable, if unsatisfactory, way taking about men and well having seperate but equal roles, but I've never seen anyone really point to anything definative where God bars us from ordaining women and explains why. Barring such a citation and explanation, it seems to me that it falls to the church in a given New Testament era to decide whether or not to ordain women, given and through the grace God has allowed us to live under as Christians, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

John