Movement 100

Jnovemont I00 10
By asking 'Why
Women Priests?'
one assumes that
women are the
problem...the
clericalised male
dominated forms
of ministry in the
churches today
represent a far
greater apostasy
from the teaching
of lesus than any
number of women
priests could
hope to achieve
in their lifetimes.
dioceses in Sweden, ie. a diocese in which a woman has not
yet been appointed. ln other areas there are 'clean'
parishes, whereas some are reduced to having 'clean'
vestments, ie. vestments never worn by a woman. I recently
had the unwitting honour of defiling one such set of
vestments while preaching in Stockholm Cathedrall A
member of the SCM writing in their newspaper questioned
the continued viability of the nuclear family. For this she was
accused of 'clearly having Satanic influence'. She will be
ordained this year. ln one diocese a bishop promised to
resign rather than have a women priest in his diocese. When
one women did manage to get an appointment in the State
Church (by a legal technicality) the bishop remained in his
post, lt is now virtually impossible in Sweden to be appointed
a bishop if one is opposed to the ordination of women.
P
erhaps the key to the irrational behaviour lies in the
long recognised but seldom explored connections
between sexual and religious feelings. For much of
its history Christianity has depended on the exclu-
sion of the sexual from the religious sphere, seeing sexuality
as a direct threat to or counter to religious experience' So
long as the church is ruled by the predominani sex in
society this has not presented any serious ecclesiastical
problem (the fact that it presented many problems for
women is somehow beside the point).
Now however with the advent or threat of women ministers
the problem is very much to the lore, One woman
minister reports that she had often noticed an old man in
her congregation when she was preaching. One day he came
to her and said that he liked to come and hear her
preaching but now he liked her too much and therefore he
would not come any more. The intimacy of some aspects of
ministry has, according to some women priests, led many
young men to fall in love with or become attracted to women
priests. This is not a new situation since many male priests
experience this with women. What is new however is that a
rejection of a man by a women priest brings about a far
greater sense of humiliation and threat than vice versa since
males are accustomed to taking the initiative in sexual
behaviour whereas women
are less likely to act on
these feelings to the
same extent.
The stringent precautions
taken by the church,
for instance in only
allowing priests to hear
women's confessions
from behind a grille,
testify to the fact ihat
these elements of
sexuality have always
been recognised in
religious experience. So
long however as the
dominant sex was also in
control of the generaiion
of religious experiences
there was no great
problem (for men). Now
however women priests
threaten to make blatant
the subliminal undercurrents.
The advent of
women priests is as
threatening to some men
as women taking the
hud graduated.,artth a dEree in
J a I
- - I ttreotogy, socblogy and social
I anthropology and I had come in
touch wi*r dre radkal liberalion theological
morement during tlrat time. I didn't
continue my dodoral unrk at that stag
bcause there was novhere in England
basically where I could have continued
working on liberation theology lfett
diilng Movenentwas the best way of
bringing liberation theology to the
British and lrish situation.
Put of rny thinking was that we
should advertise it widely so it became
the radical Christian journal of Britain
and lreland and ttrat with each issue
we'd produce a pamphht which would
have ongoing sales and wer the long
hauluouldn't date as quickly Now in its
hqf,ay, vre lvere producing, maybe,
2,000 copies the full issue and an
additional 3,000 cop'es of the
pamphlet. \rVe had distrihnion all over
the r,rrorld.
[n putting Movement and lhe
pamphlets togetherl the question
initiative in sexual behaviour. For the first time perhaps some
men are being told that they rather than women have to
exercise sell-conirol, and the prospect is frightening'
The other side of this is that once these relationships are
explored and exposed they also lead to the logical conclusion
that one form of the legitimisation of sexual dominance in
society comes through male clericalism. The image of the pure,
dispassionate, logical, wise, rational male, who always knows
what is best for everyone, is a necessary part of the ideological
superstruciure which holds society together, in the form of
patriarchal government as we know it. The fact that the State
rather than the Church in Sweden is most firmly behind women
priests does not contradict this fact. The greatest threat to this
superstructure for the State in Sweden comes in ihe possibility
that the church might be exposed as being led by the kind of
men who object to women priests who in the view of the
governing authorities have long since lost touch with reality,
The position of women in Sweden in general is exceptional.
One cannot expect the same conclusions to be reached by
the governments of Britain and lreland given the present stage
of women's liberation, lt is interesting however to look at
Sweden to provide the kind of historical perspective twenty
years hence on the present debate in Britain' Just what will
psychiatrists make of a Cardinal who proclaims that he has yet
to hear the case for women priests as though women were
some kind of sub human species to which the normal
standards of justice and equity did not apply except in exceptional
circumstances? What will philosophers make of the logic
of those in the Church of England or the Orthodox Church in
Greece who refuse to ordain women, claiming it would harm
relationships with Rome, at the same time as they cling onto
their lawful wives and are indifferent to Rome's ruling on
celibacy? A Roman Catholic bishop once wrote to me that
women who are pioneers in the movement for women priests
are called to suffer as Jesus did when he was preaching
against the old traditions of the Jewish religion. What will the
sociologists make of a church founded on Jesus Christ which
so quickly developed the equivalents of Scribes and
Pharisees, contemporary clericalism, against whom .lesus
fought and died? fit
would be "what were the hot toPics
theologically" and what was not getting
into the publk arena in Britain or keland
and hor,v could we redress that balance'
ln lreland bdore nry time thry tri.ed to
set up a radical &rlstian magazine and
theArchbishop had quashed it and
wouldn't alloriv it to be sold anywhere.
One of the great $ings we had wittthe
SCM was economic independence, so
that we could produce things vrithout
ever hing beholden to the bishops and
to what thry would say or not say For
instance I sold hundreds of copies of
ForThe Banbhd Otildren of Eve in
lreland and there would have been no
other way that would have been
produced in ftristian or associated
circks. Certainty not in tre 70's. The
questbn was horl can we break through
and make liberation theologbal trinking
available in Britain and keland to address
fe major social and religious concerns
that nere there."
-l'fary Cordrcn, edibt 197 +7 9
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