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Page1 on this topic has only brought me one angry email in the years it has been online. It was a deliberate rant. I intended to follow up with a theological apologia but never did. Now I post this retrospective of the 20 years I have championed the cause of women being deacons/priests. Although my opinion is still the same,I must say that it is no longer an issue with me.There has been little progress is those years and most church orgs have done all they are going to do, it seems. What has modified my postition is the behavior of women who HAVE been ordained. Overall it has been extremely disappointing. Most have shown the same flaws as a lot of men,the worst being AMBITION which has no place in the priesthood. It is enough to have to deal with it in men. Many have been rebellious towards their bishops. Some have become heretical as happened in the Episcopal Diocese of Seattle during the 80's. Overall, it has not been a good performance. I am disappointed and disillusioned with the whole cause. Myself, I have never ordained any women to the priesthood because I was observant enough to discern feminist motivations. I have ordained one deaconess,my own soulmate/wife in this life who was subjected to three years of theological study beforehand. No slack for wives from me! I am sure and I know of many cases of fine women priests and deacons and will continue to recognize their validity. However the issue is a dead issue with me now. Ironically, the church org which need most to consider the possiblity is the Roman Church with its tremendous and critical shortage of priests. They already have a candidate pool of well-educated nuns to draw on. They are already "in the system" and often better trained than most bishops.They also often,because of their celibacy, have a greatly frustrated need to nuture which, incidentally, is one female quality that influenced my decision 20 years ago.But Rome takes the image of being "eternal" far too seriously for their own good. I am not one of them, do not ever want to be one of them so I have no influence in that sphere.That is all I have to say on this. As topic for discussion, it no longer exists for me. |
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