wfn.org | Canadian Opinions vary on impact of women in ministry

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Leanne Larmondin
Web Manager

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Web Manager's Note: Nov. 30, 2001, will mark the 25th anniversary of the
first ordination of women in the Anglican Church of Canada.  Three people
with a long involvement with the church were asked, 'What has been the
effect of women priests on the church?' We invite you to respond to the
question as well. Simply reply to this message. Responses will be excerpted
and compiled for a future website feature.

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In the 25 years since Canadian Anglican women first became priests,
theology schools, churches and cathedrals have opened their doors and their
pulpits to increasing numbers of them. Some people say that the inclusion
of women in ordained ministry has been easy, with parishioners welcoming
the representation of the feminine qualities of God. But, with women
comprising just 16 per cent of active clergy in the church, others say that
their impact has not been as profound as it could be.

Madeline Critchell, a leading lay worker in Newfoundland, says that despite
the change of the last quarter century, women have a long way to go before
they achieve equality.

"People say to me, 'A woman can be a bishop, a woman can be a priest, so
what do you want?' People are not aware of the glass ceiling. You think
because women can be priests and bishops there's no problem, but look at
who still makes the decisions.

"We're not there in decision-making in the church and I'm not sure whose
fault that is."

Ms. Critchell, a retired high school teacher who works with youth in the
parish of Foxtrap, might have become a priest had circumstances been
different in the church.

"I'm sure if the ordination of women had been available when I was in high
school, I probably would be ordained now," said Ms. Critchell, who, in 1995
won the Anglican Award of Merit, the church's highest award for lay people
who have made an outstanding contribution to the church.

By the time it was permitted in the diocese, she was already firmly
established herself as a lay leader in her parish (then, Bay Roberts) and
diocese and had a family.

In the early 1980s, when the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador
was debating the ordination of women, Ms. Critchell, then-diocesan program
officer, became  the point person for preparing parishes and delegates for
the vote. At that diocesan synod, moments after the vote, one synod
delegate said to her, "So, I guess you'll be off to Queen's (College) then."

There was an assumption, said Ms. Critchell, the diocese's first
professional lay minister, that she had been involved in the movement for
ordination of women on her own behalf.

Ms. Critchell speaks bluntly when asked her impression of the impact of
women priests on the church.

"Men do less now," she says. The presence of women in authority positions
in ministry has had a corollary effect of an increased involvement of women
throughout the church. In her own diocese, altar servers are now almost
exclusively girls where, only a decade or two ago, only boys served. Ms.
Critchell observes that women also make up a growing segment of parish
leadership.

She also dispels the notion that women's presence in ministry has
necessarily made a gentler church; she believes that each person,
regardless of gender, brings different qualities to their ministry. Some
women, she says, are quite "masculine" in their thinking and some men are
quite comfortable showing God's feminine side in their ministry, she adds.

"We kind of felt that women would bring in a more feminine side of God, but
that's not always the case," says Ms. Critchell. "You can't really pin down
what people are going to bring (to ministry) because they can only bring
what they got."

While not directly involved in the movement for the ordination of women,
the 1970s found Rev. Clarke Raymond working for their inclusion at other
levels in the church. As director of the program unit of the Anglican
Church of Canada, Mr. Raymond campaigned for parity of women on national
church councils and committees. He sees the 1975 ordination of women in
context of women's equality elsewhere, including staff of the church's
national office.

Before the '70s, men at the national office were paid more than women doing
similar work, primarily because they had more theological training.
Advancement to the higher levels of the church bureaucracy was limited for
women for the same reason.

"We began asking ourselves, are we paying on the basis of where they've
been or on what they're being asked to do?" Mr. Raymond recalls.

Rather than assess the impact of women priests on the church, Mr. Raymond
sees the larger picture of inclusion of women at all levels of the church
hierarchy.

"One of the problems of men's voices is they tend to override," he says.
The full inclusion of women in the church has meant that "decision-making
has become more reflective, more inclusive of a range of differences."

Hesitating to describe women's ministry as gentler - "I don't want to be
patronizing" - Mr. Raymond says his impression is that church life in
general has become more considerate.

Retired Archdeacon Harry Hilchey, who has served as the national church's
deputy prolocutor, prolocutor and general secretary, was prolocutor (after
the primate, the most senior officer of General Synod) when General Synod
approved the ordination of women in 1975.

As the vote was taken by orders (first lay people stood in favour or
against, then clergy, then bishops), he recalls wondering what the effects
of women priests, after a divisive debate, would be.

"It's interesting to me that we have easily moved from women in the
priesthood to women in the episcopate and it has been a good experience,"
said Archdeacon Hilchey, now an associate interim priest at St. Matthew's,
Islington, in east Toronto. "We have set an example for the rest of the
(Anglican) Communion. We have come to a position of equality."

To prove that equality, Archdeacon Hilchey points to the presence of women
in every office of the church: priest, archdeacon, dean, bishop. If the
church has not attained full inclusion of women yet, says Archdeacon
Hilchey, it is quite close.

He has also witnessed the changes that women have brought to Toronto's
Wycliffe College, where he received his theology training in the 1940s
(when it was an "all-male enclave") and where he later taught.

Once at Wycliffe in the early '90s, he invited a woman priest to speak
about whether there was a difference between how women and men preached.
The priest said there was not, but he recalls debating the issue with her
and the class.

"Women bring different illustrations (to their preaching)," he observes.
"You're bound to bring to your ministry what you are."

The nature of women as nurturers, he says, has had a positive impact on the
church, particularly on children and seniors. He also believes that women
entering ministry bring different interests and expectations.

"A woman entering the ministry may have in mind choices of being a wife and
mother and having a professional life," he says.

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Links:

What are you doing to mark 25 years of women as priests?
National church gathering resources and ideas
September 2001 www.anglican.ca website news story
<http://www.anglican.ca/news/online/news.html?newsItem=2001-09-20_ll.news>

Inroads by women fall short of leadership positions
October 2001 Anglican Journal feature
<http://www.anglicanjournal.com/127/08/canada03.html>

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Leanne Larmondin
Web Manager
Anglican Church of Canada
600 Jarvis St.
Toronto ON  L5E 2G1
(416) 924 9199 ext. 307
ll@anglican.ca
http://www.anglican.ca
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