Wimmin called to ministry

Canon Anne Dyer at St Andrew's Cathedral in King Street.
Canon Dyer is set to become the first female bishop in Scotland.
Source Press and Journal/Picture by Colin Rennie.

Another 'social worker' is to be enthroned as the first woman bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church this week. The new Episcopalian Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney has already made it clear she isn’t interested in restricting herself to "prayers, pews and parochial parish life". She is focused on "fighting for social justice, sexual equality".

Responding to critics of her backing for gay marriage, the new bishop said, “The Scottish Episcopal Church officially acknowledges that there is not one view on marriage within our church today. We hold differing views according to our consciences, but also after varied readings of the bible and prayer. Whatever view a person holds, they are welcome. It is the bishop’s role to try to hold diversity together, to enable those who disagree to find common cause and purpose, and see Christ present in every person."

She should have a word with the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev'd Mark Strange. There was no common cause when he dismissed objections from traditionalist Anglicans who accused the bishops of having chosen to “ignore the opinion of the Diocesan Synod”. Bishop Strange stated that he, the other electing bishops, and Canon Dyer “fully believe and trust that they have been led by the Holy Spirit”.

The Holy Spirit is having a busy time allegedly supporting all these wimmin who claim to be called to ministry based on controversial readings of the Bible.

Another +selfie: "We literally could not have got another person in the chapel!
Eucharist, fellowship & conversation enjoyed by all." Source: Twitter

In another example, a Church in Wales tweet has been promoting an interview with the bishop of Llandaff by a student who attended a well publicised Cardiff University Chaplaincy event to welcome their new bishop. 

Apparently the event was so well attended that  all 22 students present had to squeeze themselves into the chapel, including some of considerably riper years looking at the +selfie.

Had it not been for the big squeeze in the chapel the event could have provided yet another metaphor for the state of the Church in Wales. 

There are 30,676 students in Cardiff University giving an attendance figure for the welcome visit of 0.07%, somewhat short of the 0.9 % of the population worshipping in Church of Wales congregations on average Sundays - see Church in Wales attendance plummets.

Undeterred bishop June obligingly explains how she had been called to ministry. She had a "developing sense that God was calling [her] to the ministry of the church". Sorry June. That wasn't God. It was synodical voting by feminists and their sympathisers who have independently used Anglican church provinces for political advantage with no regard for the consequences.

A word count of the bishop's interview illustrates the secular approach to ministry by career wimmin. It shows Jesus, along with men and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, had one mention each while sex had six and women eleven.

What they have is a ministry of self-advancement based on 'varied readings' of the bible which appeal to secularists who, in turn, use it as ammunition to attack the church. The consequences are all too evident.

Ministry is about service. It is not a strategy for the advancement of wimmin, casting aside other women and men because they follow Christ's example along with the vast majority of Anglicans and most Christians.

But the saddest result of the feminist mission is that some genuinely faithful women have been misled into thinking that ordained ministry is part of God's plan when the contrary is obvious from any normal reading of the Bible.

Postscript [02.03.2018]

As if to prove my point, an article in the Church Times 'Women in ministry: the next steps' is described as a "response to Women’s History Month" in which Johanna Derry looks at issues faced by women clergy.

A word count shows not one reference to Jesus but 52 to women.

From the article: "I think that no one looks twice now when they see a woman priest — it’s accepted, and most people are very happy with it. It seems normative rather than quirky, and I think we’ve made very quick progress on the way women bishops have been received, too," the Revd Sheridan James, Vicar of St Catherine’s, Hatcham, says. She is the dean of women’s ministry for the Woolwich Area."

That is the same argument being used by clerics promoting gay marriage - people will accept it, they claim, as they have re-marriage after divorce. When the Vicar of St Catherine’s says that 'most people are very happy with it', she must be referring to the few Anglicans remaining who still regularly attend Sunday services. Tens of thousands are not. They have left.

In Wales where no provision has been made for Anglicans who are not swayed by relativism, their church has simply left them. There is no love, no charity, no concern. Just nothing. That is negativity.

If you are not for the revisionist agenda you are labelled a bigot, guilty of sexism, misogyny and all the usual phobias. Alternative views are not permitted even when, as the 1928 Book of Common Prayer put it when I was received into the congregation of Christ’s flock, one manfully fights under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil.

Nevertheless I welcome different shades of opinion but sadly some interesting comments are lost because they are unsigned and have no pseudonym to separate them from other 'anonymous' comments. Here are two opposing views by way of example.

Anonymous 1 - "I am sick and tired of the comments made on this blog. I am a woman and I object to wimmin being used to describe the females who serve God and His Church. You should look at the past and see how successful men have been. Not. Perhaps God is trying something new and wants to change the attitude that prevails."

Anonymous 2 - "Have you noticed this positive discrimination in the Church of Scotland where they more or less stopped recruiting men in favour of women with the result that they have run out of ministers. Once upon a time the discerning of a call to the ministry was the main role of the hierarchy when they encouraged and supported those with a vocation to listen to the call. Wider society is not turning the church into a minority - the church is doing that job by turning away from the search for true gifts of ministry and mission."

I again urge commentators to observe this rule when comments are submitted for publication.