Hour Of Decision for Women Priests

By Michael P. Harris

Hardworking and attentive, Anthea Williams, 37, rises early every weekday morning to tend to the spiritual needs of the parishioners of Christ Church in Maidstone, a small town in southeast England. She baptizes babies, conducts funerals, comforts the sick in their homes and in hospital beds, and leads her congregation in prayer in the small, modern brick church. But as a woman, she is forbidden to celebrate the rite of Holy Communion for her flock of 40 parishioners. That central act of worship can be performed only by male clerics in the Church of England, who occasionally neglect even to show up for services. Says Williams: "If I don't have someone there on Sundays to celebrate Communion, I can't do anything. For the parish, it's very frustrating to say the least."

Such disappointments may soon end for Williams and the 700 other deaconesses, or nonordained ministers, serving in the 27 million-member Church of England, the "mother church" of the worldwide Anglican Communion. On Feb. 6 the church's bishops issued a report endorsing the ordination of women. The study's purpose: to simplify the complicated and divisive process that may authorize female clergy for the Church of England by the early 1990s and to soften any disruptions in church life that such an action would cause.

This week the General Synod, the church's legislative body, which is composed of three houses (bishops, clergy and laity), will vote on the issue. Women make up almost 20% of the synod and, taking into account the bishops' support for female ordination, approval is virtually certain. The move would further fuel a controversy that has raged in the church since the campaign for women priests began gathering strength twelve years ago. Seven of the 28 provinces that form the 70 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, including churches in the U.S. and Canada, have opened the ranks of the priesthood to women, but the parent church has so far been reluctant to take that step.

Within the Evangelical, or Low Church branch of the Church of England, some biblical literalists oppose women clergy because of the belief that the Scriptures forbid women's holding authority over men. But the most determined opposition has come from the High Church, or Anglo-Catholic wing, which is close to Roman Catholicism in many of its beliefs, traditions and rituals. The focus for this resistance is the outspoken Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Graham Leonard, 65. Anglo-Catholics concur with Roman Catholic teaching that creating women priests would violate the intentions of Jesus Christ and would deviate from an unbroken church practice of ordaining only men. Bishop Leonard has collected 18,000 signatures from conservative Anglicans, some of whom say they might follow him into an independent schismatic church if the Church of England approves female priests. Proponents of ordination for women call this stand "blackmail." Says Margaret Webster, executive secretary of the Movement for the Ordination of Women: "They made those threats before women were ordained in the American Episcopal Church, but few people actually left."

The General Synod requested the bishops' report last summer when its own efforts to solve the knotty problem proved futile. This month's document recommends an interim period of unspecified length for adjustment to women's performing priests' duties. During that time, no diocese or parish would be forced to accept a female priest. But after that, any communicant wishing to remain in the church must accept the reality of a mixed clergy. The bishops admit the possibility that some conscientious objectors may never be reconciled to the changes and may choose to leave and form their own church.

Not all the complications arising from ordaining women will be internal. Ecumenical discussions aimed at unifying Anglicans and Roman Catholics, who have been separated since King Henry VIII cut ties with Rome in 1534, may be jeopardized after 20 years of cautious discussions. Two years ago Pope John Paul II wrote to Archbishop Robert Runcie of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, warning that the "increase in the number of Anglican churches which admit, or are preparing to admit, women to priestly ordination" is an "increasingly serious obstacle" to reconciliation.

Perhaps the most alarming prospect for Anglican conservatives after the authorization of female priests is the logical next step: women bishops. The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, is expected to ordain a woman bishop within the next five years. Leonard warns that if the Church of England should recognize a female bishop anywhere in the Anglican world, all pretensions to orthodoxy would vanish and he could not continue as a member.

For many like Anne Jennings, a deaconess at St. Andrew's Church in Manchester, the ordination of women is simply a matter of "regarding women as equal in the eyes of God." Others, such as Arthur Leggatt, general secretary of the conservative Church Union, an organization of Anglo-Catholics, insists that the Scriptures authorizes only males as priests. Says Leggatt: "Christ himself chose men and men only to be his apostles." But in an institution whose very existence is threatened by the dramatically declining participation of its membership -- there has been a 15% drop in Sunday attendance over the past 15 years -- the overriding problem for the Church of England is not only to prepare for the ordination of women but also to somehow manage to hold all its members together.

With reporting by Cathy Booth/Rome and Paul Hofheinz/London