10 - Ministerial offices – ordination of women

Summary

The place of women in the ordained orders of Anglicanism is of course part of a history of the place of women in Anglican institutions generally. For the modern twenty-first-century person it is surprising to find that Anglicans debated with some heat whether or not women could serve as church wardens in local parishes, or on parish councils, or on diocesan synods or on national General Synods. But they did, and those debates reached a sufficient level of general concern to attract the attention of the Lambeth Conference of bishops. In 1920 the Lambeth Conference resolved that ‘Women should be admitted to those councils of the Church to which laymen are admitted, and on equal terms. Diocesan, provincial, or national synods may decide when or how this principle is to be brought into effect.’ This enlightened approach did not bring about widespread change in the dioceses and provinces for another fifty years. Not until 1970 did the General Convention of ECUSA resolve to admit women as members of the Convention.

Given that the ordained ministries were amongst the most traditional of the church's institutions, and that they directly affected issues of power and authority in the church, it is not surprising that there was considerable disagreement about the inclusion of women in those orders. There were also very important theological arguments which were brought to bear and to which we shall return shortly.