Free Republic

Anglican Options Rome or Orthodoxy? By Fr. Chad Hatfield I can still remember the confusion and pain at Nashotah House Seminary when the news began to spread that the 1976 General Convention had passed, by a razor thin margin, a canon to permit the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate. The 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, was teaching theology at the seminary in the fall of 1976. His powerful presence had an almost spell-like effect on everyone and we all looked to him for guidance and wisdom. In true Anglo-Catholic fashion, most, but not all of us,...

Having read the comments made to For the Record, I would like to clarify certain points. I renounced my priesthood because after much consideration and study, I had to face these facts. 1. Women are not ordained priests in either Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. Women are given numerous other significant roles in those churches, but not the office of priest. We do well to recognize that these churches continue in the Tradition of 2000 years in upholding this decision. 2. The Protestant use of Scripture passages to justify ordaining women as pastors, not priests, is beside the point since we...

At the close of the debate in the Synod of the Church of England in early February 2006, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said: “People have talked at times about differences of opinion and how the Church can live with differences of opinion. I think that the problem is, for those who are not content with the idea that we should go forward along the line of ordaining women as bishops, the problem is not one of opinion, it’s rather one of obedience. It’s one of obedience to Scripture, or obedience to the consensus of the Church Catholic. And,...