Statement from Equal but Different about legislation allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood (presbyterate) to be debated at the Sydney Anglican Synod.

The introduction of women to the priesthood will again be debated at the October session of the Sydney Anglican Synod. This attempt to introduce women priests comes from a group committed to identical ministries for men and women, despite the repeated rejection by this Diocese, of such an innovation.

The legislation promoted this year allows women to be ordained as priests, without any attempt to protect the Biblical pattern of male leadership of congregations.

We see this as a serious departure from the plain teaching of Scripture. 

Also, in light of the impact of past debates on our Christian unity and relationships, and the negative publicity generated by these debates, we consider this attempt a regrettable distraction from the mission of making Christ known and the ordinary business of Synod.

Scripture teaches that God created men and women to be equal but different (cf. Gen. 1-2). Both men and women are created by God in his image, with equal purpose and dignity. However, both men and women have rebelled from him and are fallen and in need of salvation; both are redeemed by Christ and incorporated into him; and are equally used in his service to love God and his people. 

Nevertheless, God does not intend men and women to have identical responsibilities in the family and the church. In marriage the husband is lovingly to lead his wife, and the wife is to submit willingly to his headship (Eph. 5:21-33; 1 Pet. 3:1-7; Col. 3:18-19).

Similarly in the church, it is the responsibility of suitably gifted men to lead the church family, through faithful Bible teaching and pastoral oversight (1 Tim. 3:1–2; 5:17; Tit. 1:6–9; 1 Pet. 5:1–3; cf. Matt. 28:19–20; Acts 20:28–31; 1 Cor. 16:15–16; Eph. 4:11–12; 1 Thess. 5:12–13; 2 Tim. 2:2; Js. 3:1).

In God’s loving wisdom, leadership of the church family is not a responsibility for women (1 Tim. 2:11-15; 1 Cor. 14:33-35). This is not a denial that women are gifted for ministry (which is self-evidently and Biblically not the case, see Tit. 2:3-5; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 11:4–16; cf. Phil. 4:2–3), or because the pastoral and teaching ministry of women in appropriate contexts is not highly valued, but because his pattern for the relationship between men and women is one of equality and difference. This pattern is also a reflection of the ordered relationships within the Trinity, and the relationship of Christ and the church (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph 5:23-32).

In the Anglican Church, ordination to the priesthood (presbyterate) is the recognition of the suitability of a person to lead a church. Ordination as a priest is necessary to be a rector or senior minister of a parish or church. If women are ordained as priests (presbyters) they would legally be able to assume this teaching and pastoral leadership of a church.

For this reason, the ordination of women to the priesthood must be rejected.

Yours in Christ,

Lesley Ramsay, Pru Selden, Helen Jensen, Louisa Pfitzner and Claire Smith 

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Sydney Anglican Synod 2006 Update

On Tuesday 24th October 2006, on the last day of meeting, the Synod voted decisively against a motion allowing the introduction for debate, of the legislation allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood (General Synod – Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992 Adopting
Ordinance 2006).

The vote against the motion was strong in both houses (laity 70%; clergy 85%) and indicates an unwillingness to revisit an issue that has been thoroughly researched, discussed and debated in previous decades, and which the Synod has consistently rejected. The numbers of those opposed are an increase from previous voting on this issue.

The day before the debate, Equal but Different distributed material to the Synod with excerpts of letters sent to the Synod from 600 Sydney Anglican women, expressing their opposition to the introduction of women to the priesthood on Biblical grounds. We are grateful to all those women who took the time to write and make their views known.

Above all, we are grateful to God, that the debate was conducted with restraint and in the context of fellowship, and grateful too that the Synod's vote indicates an acceptance of the Biblical teaching about the pattern of relationships between men and women, that God desires.