A Schism By Any Other Name

A Schism By Any Other Name @ Gay Viewpoint Blog

By Thomas C. Jackson

So it has come down to this: the election of a woman to the largely ceremonial post of Presiding Bishop provides an excuse for splitting the Anglican Communion.

The three dioceses in America that still cling to the medieval notion that women are less worthy to serve God than men continue to be the tail wagging the other 97 Episcopal dioceses in this country.

Only now this horrific affront to the holy men who want to keep “their” church a boys only club somehow justifies breaking the American church apart and allowing America’s good old boys to have, in effect, their own province?

This so-called “solution” has been rejected time and again by the Church’s General Convention but now it is justified by the “anarchy” enveloping the Episcopal Church in America?

Time for a reality check.

The overwhelming majority of American Episcopalians support ordaining women as priests, consecrating them as bishops. Electing a woman to serve as Presiding Bishop is a big deal to a tiny minority of American Episcopalians. That’s why the three dioceses that refuse to ordain women have made such a big deal out of gay issues: they know they can’t win if they fight ordination of women. Somewhere between 3 and 10 percent of “the church” seems to be upset about the women/gay thing. That is hardly enough to constitute “anarchy,” in fact that term has been used first and foremost by the British Press. While it may be true that the election of a woman as Presiding Bishop in America has thrown the English Church into a dither, that is nothing new for the Church of England. They have, after all, not yet managed to see their way clear to ordain a single woman bishop.

The experience of the American Church in dealing with the three non-conforming dioceses suggests that any attempt to accommodate these good old boy clerics will only lead to intensifying long term conflict. The American Church would have been better off to simply depose those bishops who – after say 10 years – still refused to ordain women or allow women clergy to serve in their diocese. To allow these bishops to continue disobeying church law does irreparable harm to our people and our church.

Some members of Parliament have noticed that the Church of England still enforces a stained glass ceiling by refusing to consecrate women bishops. If the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the name of unity at all costs, breaks apart the American church to rescue a few dioceses from a woman primate, then he sets a precedent that would also apply in the United Kingdom. And that could permanently condemn British women to second class status in their national church. The specter of this continuing injustice could well force political leaders to remind the Church of England that they are the nation’s church and not the private preserve of club populated by tired old white men clinging to pseudo-Victorian values.

The fight – or ‘anarchy’ – in the American Church has never really been about gays. The neo-conservatives have been lathered up for more than 30 years, since women were first ordained in our church. The election of our new Presiding Bishop simply makes clear their true colors – and priorities.