Posted on 06/15/2006 2:51:17 AM PDT by Cavalcabo
On July 31, a dozen well-educated, experienced Roman Catholic women will pass into uncharted spiritual waters on a boat cruising Pittsburgh's rivers.
On that afternoon, three women in vestments will lay their hands on the heads of the 12 women and anoint their hands with oil during an ordination ceremony that will be the first of its kind in the United States.
Among the participants is Joan Clark Houk, 65, of McCandless, who with seven other women are answering a call to be priests; the other four are candidates to be deacons.
It will be the fourth such ceremony in the world since 2002, all unrecognized by the Vatican. The women are part of a growing international movement to push for women's ordination.
The Women's Ordination Conference, based in Fairfax, Va., will announce today its support of the Pittsburgh ceremony, which will be held aboard the Gateway Clipper boat Majestic. Pittsburgh was selected because of its central location.
In a three-page letter dated May 9, Mrs. Houk, a member of St. Alexis in McCandless, advised Bishop Donald Wuerl of her plans. She has received no response. Mrs. Houk also sent a copy of the letter to all 360 priests in the diocese.
"It is a sin for the Church to discriminate against women and to blame God for it," Mrs. Houk wrote.
The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the church "has determined that the ordination of males is a part of the faith handed down by Christ through his apostles and therefore the church is not free to change it. Ordination to the priesthood can only be conferred on a male."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I'm only saying that Paul's letters and story are part of the bible, and I don't see why they wouldn't be as reliable to you as anything else in the bible.
Big difference there.
The Bible is reliable to the degree the men who were inspired succeeded in hearing the Lord. The Koran, on the other hand, is made up of bits and pieces of erroneous history, and at its root it seems to be primary composed of a Syrian Orthodox missionary's manual used to Christian the Arabs in Mecca.
There's some other stuff in there from old Torahs found in the desert.
So, which would you rather have ~ the Inspired Word of God, or a Xerox copy of the Koran?
I think the choice is easy.
I believe the bible IS the revealed Word of God in it's entirety. Your statement implies that parts of the bible are not the Word of God and other parts are, something altogether different.
If not all the bible is inspired, how are we to know which parts are and aren't? A book that "contains" the Word would be of little value unless it had a directory of some kind to point out what part is divinely inspired and therefore infallible, and what is merely human wisdom and therefore open to error. I could not have faith in a bible as the foundation stone for my Christian belief system if it was open to question on the matter of who wrote what.
The accepted doctrine is that the Bible contains the revealed Word of God. It is not accepted doctrine that God dictated the entire document to anyone (although it contains numerous "quotes" citing God as the Source - check the parts Moses claims to have put together for some excellent examples of this.).
Even the books that make up the Bible were the subject of discussion and consideration at various Christian councils over the ages. That work is not complete ~ new materials are found from time to time.
As an evangelical Christian I have stood arm in arm with Catholics and fundamentalist protestants alike at abortion clinic protests. At no time was our friendly fellowship and unity of purpose either marred or inhibited by our doctrinal differences, some of which I think we would all agree are profound.
As I have said on other religious theme threads, it appears that evangelical protestant conservatives and Catholic conservatives will eventually be practically the only groups which will remain standing firm in opposition to the unGodly agenda of the liberals and their many different morally bankrupt interest group suppporters such as the homosexual lobby, abortionists, death cultists, porn peddlers, secular humanists, dope advocates, etc. Most of the mainline protestant denominations have long ago deserted and joined the other side, or at least the leadership has. My Godly paternal grandparents were staunch Methodists of the old Wesleyan school, but they would turn away in disgust and sorrow from the politically correct travesty of it's former self that the now pro-abortion UMC has become.
It only makes good sense for Americans with basically the same interests in matters such as preserving the traditional family, the right to life, the sanctity of marriage, sexual perversion, government schooling, freedom of worship, etc, to unite our political power to protect those mutual interests.
Such as the ca 3rd and 4th century Gnostic "gospels"? Or those heretical writings recently found in a southern Egyptian cave that are being touted by the finder as lost scriptures? Please don't tell me that you believe there is anything worthwhile to be found in any of those abominable heresies.
Although I don't subscribe to a considerable portion of Reformed theology, I believe the following statements by the prominent Reformed pastor and author Bob Burridge are correct, and they accurately represent my own view on the issue:
"All of our present New Testament books, Matthew through the Revelation, have been consistently received by the Church as authoritative. The New Testament rests its authority upon the authority of Jesus Christ. He chose his apostles, enabled them, appointed them, and taught them. It is that Christ-given apostolic authority which guided the church to know which writings were authoritative.........Each book, from the time it was written, was received as Canon. Councils did meet at times to form answers to those who doubted God's word. But they did not decide what belongs in our Bible. They merely stated what believers had always known and accepted."
I realize that the Latin Vulgate bible includes the Apocrypha. Jerome translated the Vulgate, but he personally rejected the Apocryphal books as inspired scripture. St. Augustine recommended the Apocryphal books to Christians for spiritual edification, but he never referred to them as inspired holy writ which tells me that he held pretty much the same view of them as Jerome.
I personally believe that the canon of scripture was completed with the Apostle John's writing of the book of the Apocalypse. You obviously take a different view of the matter, and I don't care to argue a point of religious conviction when I am confident in advance that none of the arguments put forth by the two parties will change the mind of the other.
This will not be recognized by the Catholic Church, that is simple heresy and humanism.
Amen! my FRiend!
I expressed concern because there's no such thing as a "goddess". They may as well be praying to Baal.
The Greeks kind of screwed that system up and began matching some of the "male" essences against totems rather than "females", while they distorted many of the "females" into lesser "male" identities, or maybe even titans.
As far as Ba'al worship goes, there's still a lot of that going on, but he's a Semitic "god". I think you'd be better served referring to him as Saturn.
So the Roman "god" Saturn is a spinoff of Baal? I did not know that.
And I'm the Dalai Lama.
Some do, not all.
Well, hello Dalai. It's so nice to have you back where you belong... sorry, couldn't resist :>)
Both systems have a common "ancestry", and usually served the purpose of justifying the murder of the innocent.
Modern abortionists and their followers cannot really be differentiated from Ba'al and Saturn worshippers (in the broader sense).
Next thing you know,these women will be stealing blessed communion wafers from Mass so they can have the real body and blood of Christ at their Mass...Just like the satanists do...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.