WOMEN AS PRIESTS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 11

WOMEN AS PRIESTS

A BISHOP'S PROTEST PLACE IN THE HOME . (From "The Post's" Representative.) . .. ■. LONDON, 30th March. Some amount of controversy has been caused by a statement- made by .the ■Bishop of Durham regarding.the admission . of. women to Holy Orders. "I-- find no reason which could justify so great a breach with the traditions of Christendom as 'the admission of women to Holy Orders on equal terms with men." This statement ■ was made by the Bishop in an address to the Durham Diocesan Conference. "It is! not,, in my mind, by the admission of women to Holy Orders," he said, "that the present crisis ought to be . met. There is no assumption of female inferiority in excluding women from Holy Orders, but only a recognition of their distinctiveness in a natural function. The Church of England would hardly be justified in taking up, on its own authority, a position which would involve a departure from the institutions of Christ and the traditions of the universal Church. . "The world needs to-day the faithful fulfilment of women's normal natural functions. What is the most menacing evil of our times? Is it not'the repudiation of wifely and motherly functions? •This is a contemporary feature, due partly to the result of our insular position,, partly to the consequence of the Great War, as well as to the fact that there are a multitude of single women Who, through no fault of their own, cannot receive the'normal function of .domestic life, and are, therefore, casting about for alternatives. "This repudiation of the natural functions, dictated by a perverted notion of sexual equality and .made possible by the misapplication of science, implies a disintegrating of the family and the withdrawal from society of the principle discipline in which citizenship is divinely ordained to develop. The abuse is' deliberate, shameless, and actively propagandist. It constitutes a -challenge to the Christian Church which- we dare not ignore. The world wants, desperately not female priests and bishops, but Christian wives and mothers." . OTHER .vThat^Women.'^are equally' capable of _ful-' filling rthe duties of clergy as' men is supported by prominent people, each o£ whom suggests that women have greater natural gifts for the calling:— . Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P.: "I cannot see why being an ordained minister should interfere with the fulfilment of women's natural. function, for all their time is not taken up with children. I think that an elderly and experienced woman, who has been a wife or mother, would far,better understand people's difficulties, and therefore make ■ a better minister than most young curates." Sir Arbuthnot Lane: "If women, are doctors or lawyers, I see no reason why they should not be ministers, and their duties as such, ■would, in point of time, interfere lees ■ with their natural functions than those_ of a doctor. Besides, .wonien are infinitely more religious than men, and therefore more fitted to preach religion." Miss Olga Nethersole, founder of the People's League of Health: "The call to the Church is one that has to be obeyed, and; should be .obeyed equally if it comes to women or to men. Women_ have achieved a spiritual height which is certainly "as high as that of men." The Rev. Herbert Dunnico, M.P.: "The Christian ministry includes many functions, and some of them could be performed equally well, if not better, by women than by men. In domestic and family troubles women will open their hearts with greater confidence to women than to men. But the question, cdils for calm and careful consideration, and I agree with 'the opinion o£ the. Bishop that the supreme function of woman'" is motherhood." DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. The Rev. Basil Bouchier, Vicar o£ Hampstead Garden Suburb: "I agree with the Bishop of Durham that the refusal io; admit women to Holy Orders does not in any sense imply inferiority.. It is simply that men and women have different functions.' .1 went into this matter very thoroughly some years ago, and I found that the opinion of women generally was wholly against, the admission of their sex to Orders. Without- women all the churches would be bankrupt. They are maintained by women. The home is just as flourishing as ever it was, and I do not know what the Bishop of Durham means by his attack on wonien and the home. But on the question of women as -priests, I-think the Bishop is sound. Women, wpo feel thatthey have a very'special service; in -the Church can express that feeling us deaconesses." AN ILLOGICAL POSITION. To Bishop Welldon, Dean of Durham, it seems idle to assert that" the function of women was to be good wives and good mothers, if there were millions of women who could not be wives and mothers. Not- only was the number of I wonien far greater than that of men, but marriage had become so expensive that many men shrank from it, and the problem of providing careers for educated women became ever more insistent. "I find difficulty in believing," he said, "that, if the State treats women on a basis of equality with men, the Church will always be able to keep them on a basis of inferiority. It seems illogical that women should be admitted to the Cabinet, and yet excluded from the deaconale. What St. Paul said- on. the subject cannot be justly regarded as determining .the policy of the Church for all time. If some women are admitted to preach sermons in churches, are encouraged to pre-. pare candidates for Confirmation, and are empowered under restrictions to hear confessions, there would seem no sufficient | reason for denying the recognition which would be implied in the ■ gift of Holy Orders."