Wednesday 30 November 2016

40 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada ordains its first female priests

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
I Corinthians 14:34-35

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression...
...This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,...
I Timothy 2:12, 3:1-2a

On November 30, 1976, the Anglican Church of Canada ordained its first women as priests, in four dioceses across Canada: Rev. Patricia Reed at St. Michael and All Angels, Prince George, British Columbia (Diocese of Cariboo); Rev. Elspeth Alley and Rev. Virginia Briant at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia (Diocese of New Westminster); Rev. Mary Mills at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Ontario (Diocese of Huron); and Rev. Mary Lucas and Rev. Beverley Shanley, at Grace Church, St. Catharines, Ontario (Diocese of Niagara).

Putting women in positions of leadership in a church is contrary to scripture, and isn't so much an indication that a church is about to go liberal as it is an indication of how far liberal the church has already gone. I can't think of a church that has begun putting women in leadership positions that hasn't continued in a more liberal, apostate direction. That includes so-called evangelical churches, which should be the subject of another post, if I ever get around to it.

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