wfn.org | Episcopalians: Scottish Episcopal Church votes to ordain women bishops

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

June 13, 2003

2003-141

Episcopalians: Scottish Episcopal Church votes to ordain women 
bishops

by Matthew Davies

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

At the 2002 General Synod a vast majority of the 156 members 
supported the motion, giving 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 at this 
meeting, requiring a two-thirds majority to be passed. Out of 
153 votes cast, 124 voted in favour, including all seven bishops 
of the SEC.

At present, only the 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, 
beginning in 1920 when the Lambeth Conference first considered 
the issue. Currently, one in five Church of England priests is 
female.

A momentous decision

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 opened all orders of ministry to women in 1976. 
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."

Prof. 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 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 Rev. 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 priesthood. "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."

Avoid doctrinal mistakes

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 Rev. 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 Church's 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.

------

--Matthew Davies is managing editor of the Anglcian Communion 
News Service.