NEWS FOR WOMEN Move In England For Women Priests

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28234, 23 March 1957, Page 2

NEWS FOR WOMEN Move In England For Women Priests

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

LONDON. A group of women is making a new attempt to end the ban on women priests in the Church of England. Known as the Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women, it passed a resolution at a recent annual meeting to compaign actively within the Church of England, the State church, for its views.

Hitherto, the group, which was founded in 1930. has deliberately refrained from raising public debate on the issue; but it now believes that the time has come to give women a chance of entering the full ministry. “In our view.” they have stated.

"the strength of the opposition to women lies less in theology than in psychological prejudice inherited from primitive times. It seems to us irreverent to refuse to test a woman’s claim to have received a call from the HobSpirit of God. while accepting the assurance to that effect from male candidates. Limited Services At present, women may preach and conduct statutory services such as morning and evening prayers in certain circumstances: but they may not celebrate Holy Communion or officiate at marriages or funerals. The only churches in England in which women have equal status with men are the Congregational. Baptist and Unitarian Free Churches, which are independent of the State. The Congregationalists have 43 women ministers, the Baptists eight and the Unitarians three.

St. Paul’s injunction: “Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak” has caused sharp divergence of practice in the Church of England. In the Province of York, comprising 14 dioceses in the north of England, lay women are licensed to take part in morning and evening prayer and to give addresses at these services. In the Province of Canterbury, the 29 dioceses of which cover the rest of the country, this use of women is not generally allowed. The Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women feels that the present position concerning women’s work in the Church of England is causing frustration, even among those who tlo not ■hare their views. Members are convinced that a right understanding of the contri-

bution of lay women to the service of the church cannot be reached as long as the possibility of becoming a priest in exactly the same way as a man is denied to women. The women consider that, like women doctors when they first appeared, they are the victims of prejudice. Chinese Priest The only woman ever to be ordained as a priest of the Church of England was a Chinese, Miss Lei Pin Oi. Dr. Ronald Hall, Bishop of Hong Kong, was so short of priests during World War II that he performed the act of ordination; but controversy followed and Miss Lei resigned . The members of the Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women know that they have a long and difficult task ahead of them, for opposition to women priests in the Church of England is tenacious and deep-rooted. Years of agitation for women to be admitted to the priesthood in the Church of England led to an Archbishops’ Commission opening an inquiry in 1932. After three years’ deliberations, that commission rejected the idea. The highest position a woman may hold in the Church of England is deaconess. The order of deaconess is the one existing ordained ministry for women in the Anglican communion to which admission is made by episcopal lay-ing-on of hands. The chief function of a deaconess are defined as to instruct and approach, except during the service of Holy Communion, and to read the services of Morning and Evening Prayer and Litany, except those parts reserved to the priest. r

Deaconesses are principally engaged in work with women and children.