Women as Priests - Why the Big Deal??

Vocation as Participation

Women priests at Coventry Cathedral celebrating each year of ordinations since 1994. 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-end

The church of England has been celebrating and marking 20 years of women’s priestly ministry. Today I went to a service of celebration at Coventry Cathedral. When I was in the cathedral I thought again about why women’s priesthood was so important, and about what it meant about the nature of Christian discipleship. I think that the reading from Acts can help us with that. The freshness of that passage, the enthusiasm, idealism and simplicity with which the life of the early Christians is described is indicative. Their faith led them into a different way of living together, not just worshipping together, but the formation of a new society. They had everything in common and their worship was naturally a part of their every day activities, ‘breaking bread at home and eating their food with glad and generous hearts’. The simplicity of their transformed common lives, in which worship weaved into their social lives, suggests an approach which we do well to reflect on as we partake in our sophisticated worship 2,000 years later.

For it teaches us that Christian discipleship requires the transformation of our whole way of life and a sharing of that new way of life with others. And that means that there can be no real distinction between Christians, we are brothers and sisters together and Christian discipleship is fundamentally about the full participation of each member. And to participate means to participate fully. Of course each of us has different callings and gifts, but the early Christians show us how Christian community was intended to be -each one living out to the full their vocation, offering everything that they are and have to the creation of the new society. And that is why women’s participation in all levels and areas of the church’s life is so necessary; because anything less is to not live the way God intended us to live as his people.

It's just surprising perhaps that for nearly 2000 years full equal participation wasn't self-evident to the church – it was too radical and kept being pushed away. Yet, paradox recurs again and again in the Christian story; at one level it is a truth so simple and so natural, and at another so radical and life transforming. The Gospel transforms us by showing us a way to live that gives us complete freedom and liberation but at the same time this is terrifying: to live with such freedom and outside the cultural norms of the day is radical. What is so disappointing is that too often in our current culture Christians are not seen to be radical, rather it is the secular culture that is radical, bringing freedom. The church has been playing catch up with women’s equality, for example. We need to rediscover the paradox at the heart of our Gospel which calls us to live simply, in tune with ourselves, and yet also radically, out of this world.

See pictures of the service at Coventry Cathedral here:

http://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/whats-on/ordination-20th-anniversary.php