The Scheme of Things

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 19

The Scheme of Things

By M.H.C.

There are many things in the air at present which are of special interest to M'omcn. It seems as if there never was in history such a struggle for equality of status and opportunity as there is at present. In the history of the past there are stories of dominating women who were born to a high social position —for example, Queen Elizabeth —and some, such as Cleopatra and others, who came forward to position and power through personal beauty and charm. The fact that these later people used their influence for their own ends only has been held against them by a censorious world without any regard to the early environment and teaching of such women, and the temptations to which they were subjected. Who, of the human beings at present in existence would have acted on better lines? Then the saintly women come xinder review. Joan of Arc, against whom no breath of scandal was ever raised although she was associated with soldiers at a time when women were held in the lowest estimate; Hilda, the famous Abbess of Whitby, and many others whose names are registered in the Communion of Saints, were men-

One Family we dwell in Him. One Church, above!, beneath, Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death.

tioned in a very fine sermon broadcast recently by the Archbishop of York. Christ declared that He would build His Church on the "rock of truth," enunciated by St. Peter, when a vision was given him and he declared: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The gates of death, said Christ, should not prevail against this truth, this forming a great fellowship not affected by death. The Bishop quoted the well-known hymn:—

Revelations goes further into the mystery, and shows the waiting ones "to whom was given a white robe," and it was said that they should "rest awhile until their fellow servants and their brethren should be fulfilled."

These things have a special interest as put forth so publicly over the air at a time when the great Church to which the Archbishop belongs has made another grudging step towards the ministry of women in the Church. A writer in the "Spectator" says:—"Much of the most stimulating section of the important report of the Archbishop's commission on the ministry of women is the note by the Dean of St. Paul's, in which Dr. Matthews states in vigorous language his reasons for dissenting from the conclusion of the majority that the admission of women to the priesthood would be contrary to the tradition of the Church and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The report as a whole marks a considerable step forward in recommending that laywomen be admitted to any function in the Church open to laymen, in that ordained deaconesses be placed on the same plane as ordained deacons — "though the Order of Deaconesses should not be regarded as the equivalent with the diaconate of men." To go so far and there stop decisively, laying it down, not as a matter of temporary expediency, but of permanent principle, that women shall never, under any circumstances, be admitted to the priesthood, is, as the Dean of St. Paul's observes, to limit and confine the guidance of God unwarrantably. Dr. Matthews puts the issue unequivocally when, in demanding the removal of all sex distinction in the Christian ministry, he declares that there is no more justification for discriminating against women than there would be for discriminating against Jews or men with red hair! His note will command wide agreement.

Referring back to the sermon of the Archbishop of York, and to a study of Revelations, it seems very difficult to account for the report given. Those who were given white robes and bidden wait till those whom they regarded as fellow sufferers or brethren had joined the Communion of Saints, are in no way pointed out as being only menkind. Nor did Christ make any discrimination in any of his personal utterances. Yet He knew the

circumstances and "hearts of the world far more surely than St. Paul, on whose sayings the Church has built its customs. It is a curious and nonunderstandable thing altogether.

Every Church needs the best that man or woman can give, and if- more strenuous efforts were made to get the most spiritually-minded peopTe, quite irrespective of sex, it is certain that the churches—which are simply the world of people—would be better served, and no part of the messages of God would be lost. There is something wanting, it is easy to see. Take the immense increase of population in the cities, note that there are few, if any, new churches, and also that most of those are lamentably empty, and ask "Why?" Motor-cars are not the only reason, but the fact that most people have forgotten that they should set aside a portion of the day for thanks and praise to the Giver of all good things, and it needs some extra effort to bring this most important and urgent matter before them. The power of inspired eloquence is so well known. It seems a loss to the world that only half should be used —"why?"