Anglicans Relent

The last major Protestant holdout against a female ministry began to weaken this month when a powerful group of international Anglican leaders gave member churches permission to ordain women. At the end of a two-week session in Nairobi, members of the Anglican Consultative Council voted 24 to 22 to "accept the action of any bishop, who, with the approval of his province, decided to admit a woman to the ministry." The decision will affect some 47 million members of the Anglican Communion in 90 countries.

The phrase "approval of his province" means that bishops should have the consent of the national church. In the case of England, the historic seat of Anglicanism, the approval would have to come not only from the General Synod of the Church of England but also from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. And Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury voted against the resolution in Nairobi. "I have no everlasting objection to the ordination of women," said Ramsey last week in London. He believes "it will come," but he adds that "we must not move too rapidly." Like many other Anglican churchmen, Ramsey is worried that the Council's ruling may unsettle relations with the Roman Catholic Church and even more so with Eastern Orthodox churches. Anglican laymen may well raise even greater opposition to the change.

For the U.S., the language of the resolution means that bishops cannot ordain women formally at least until the next General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1973, and possibly not until 1975. But a sympathetic U.S. bishop could conceivably risk the censure of his fellow bishops by ordaining a woman now; individual bishops have the power to do so, and while such an ordination would be unusual, it would be valid. There are at least 15 Episcopal women waiting for ordination, and some bishops are known to favor their cause.

The first ordination of a woman will probably take place not in the U.S. but in Hong Kong. That would be particularly appropriate; the Hong Kong bishop proposed the action taken by the Council in Nairobi, and it was in Hong Kong during World War II that an earlier bishop ordained a woman. That action was rescinded by the first Lambeth Conference after the war.

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