Female Priests

[John Charmley]

A happy anniversary to both of you and best wishes

I think we have to distinguish between the talents we all have in one way and another, and the priesthood.

Priests do precisely one thing the rest of us cannot. In theory there is no reason why women cannot have the same call as some men have; indeed, the best of the Anglican arguments is based on just that view. If the argument were purely about vocation, then women priests would follow naturally from it.

Yet, for those of us who take the view that Christ founded a Church and set up those who would hold priestly office, the fact He chose men for this role when He could just as easily have chosen men and women, remains the key point.

Women, like men who cannot be priests or who have no call to be, can perform many tasks, and if we think that the unique function of the priest is the only task worth doing, we miss the point of being parts of the body of Christ.

In Him,

John