wfn.org | ACNS3472 Scottish Episcopal Church votes to ordain women

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ACNS 3472     |     SCOTLAND	 |     12 JUNE 2003

Scottish Episcopal Church votes to ordain women bishops

by Matthew Davies

The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC), meeting in
Edinburgh from 12-14 June, made an historic decision today by voting to
accept women bishops and ending centuries of tradition. Todays decision
could lead the way to give Scotland the first female bishops in the UK.

At the 2002 General Synod a vast majority of the 156 members supported the
motion, which gave churches throughout Scotland the opportunity to spend a
year discussing the issue further in their own dioceses.

The motion received its second and final reading today and required a
two-thirds majority for it to be passed. Out of 153 votes cast, 124 voted in
favour, including all seven bishops of the SEC.

At present, only the Anglican/Episcopal Churches of the USA, Canada and New
Zealand have elected women as bishops, although the Anglican Church in
Ireland has voted to allow women bishops but has yet to appoint one.

On 11 November 1992, the General Synod of the Church of England voted to
open the priesthood to women, five years after women were first ordained to
the diaconate. This vote came after 70 years of formal discussion and debate
in the Anglican Communion, which began in 1920 when the Lambeth Conference
first considered the issue. Currently, one in five Church of England priests
is female.

The first women priests in the Anglican Communion were ordained in Hong Kong
in 1944. During the 1960s and 70s there was a movement in many countries
across the world towards the ordination of women as priests. In 1974 there
was an irregular ordination of 11 women in the United States, and the
Episcopal Church in the US authorised women's priestly ordination two years
later. In 1993 and 1994 the Scottish Synod agreed to allow women to be
ordained as priests and the first ordinations took place in December 1994.

Responding to today's decision, the Most Revd Bruce Cameron, Primus of the
Scottish Episcopal Church, said, "The decision is a momentous one. For some
it will be received with great joy, for others pain, but I know that most of
us will want to be members of the same family in the Episcopal Church. We
must seek to be sensitive to all people in our church."

Professor David Atkinson, lay member of the Diocese of Edinburgh, spoke in
favour of the motion, saying, "Jesus took a common sense approach to what
would be seen by others as very difficult questions. We need to look at what
the purpose of our church is to mission and ministry. Ordination of women to
the priesthood makes available to the Church the talents of a group of
committed and skilled Christians."

He admitted that issues such as these always have upsides and downsides. He
added, "I believe that common sense, fairness, inclusively of talented
Christians and our ability to be effective in our ministry and mission,
which needs to be seen as in touch with and understanding of society,
dictates that we must pass this change to our canons."

The Revd Ruth Edwards, Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, also supported the
motion saying that it follows on from the ordination of women to the
diaconate and the presbyterate. "It seems very strange to fix on them a
stained glass ceiling," she said. "It will help our ecumenical work much
more if God can call men and women equally to all levels within the
church...It is about faithfulness to the truth."

David Fuller, a member of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles, strongly
rejected the motion and asked for more debate. "We live in times of great
change," he said. "No one before us has had to live in such a volatile
world...but there is an understanding trend towards unity. We should try to
steer clear of making serious doctrinal mistakes."

The Revd Canon John Riches from the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway spoke
briefly about his experience as a member of the International Anglican
Orthodox Dialogue. He said that the Old Catholics and Orthodox in Eastern
Europe issued a joint statement saying that they could find no reason why
women should not be ordained. "The question really is, 'whatever decision is
made will it cause a division?'" he said. "It would be discrimination if, in
the absence of valid theological reasons, we chose not to support the
motion."

The following motion was also passed:

Motion 4: That this Synod, having voted to admit women to the episcopate
because a major majority of its members sufficient to satisfy the
requirement of Canon 52 believes this to be a development, guided by the
Holy Spirit, in the understanding of the Churchs threefold ministry of
Bishops, Priests and Deacons, as expressed in Canon 1:

1 desires and intends no break with the tradition of the One Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church of Christ in which the Scottish Episcopal Church has
always professed itself to be.

2 acknowledges that within the Scottish Episcopal Church, there are those,
who, for various reasons, cannot in conscience agree with its decision,
recognizes the good faith in which their convictions are held and pledges
that those who hold such convictions will continue for all time to come to
have a valued and respected place within the Scottish Episcopal Church.

3 further acknowledges, with deep sadness, that in seeking to follow the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, it has felt called to act without the existence
of a consensus on the matter in all branches of the One Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church of Christ, and expresses penitence for the existing
divisions within the Body of Christ and for any further division therein
which today's decision may cause.

4 recognises its own fallibility, with that of all the Church's Councils,
and prays that, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all branches of the
Church may continue to work together in love, so that they may grow together
in faith into the one Body of Christ.

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