Church of England Clergy Increasingly has Female Face

A leader in the Church of England’s general synod this week predicted that within 10 years half the full-time clergy within the church will be women and statistics show that she may be correct. Christina Rees, a writer, broadcaster and public speaker who chairs Watch (Women in the Church), a group that began in 1969 to promote women’s ordination in the Church of England, says the trends point to a significant increase in female ministers within the communion. Rees wants to see Anglicans move quickly to ordain more women due to the work of Forward in Faith, a group that opposes the ordination of women as bishops on biblical grounds.

“Half the clergy will be women by 2018 of that I’m certain,” she told Ecumenical News International as reported by Ekklesia—a self-described “think tank that promotes transformative ideas in public life,”“but right now we’re in the ridiculous position of still deciding on what terms we’re going to have women bishops. Forward in Faith is very active and denies that the general synod has the right to approve the consecration of women as bishops. If we don’t move soon it will be a scandal.”

Statistical trends within the Church of England certainly seem to validate Rees’ prognostication: according to the church’s official statistics from 2007, 262 of the 552 full and part-time clergy who were ordained were female. This represents a 15 percent increase from 2006 and is the highest number of female ordinands since 2000. The church of England projects that up to one-quarter of its full-time clergy will be female by 2012.

In his book Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? Wayne Grudem argues forcefully that a precipitous slide toward liberalism—as seen in the embrace of homosexuality and the rejection of core Christian doctrines—often occurs when churches and denominations abdicate on the issue of women’s ordination. Sadly, the Church of England seems to serve as a grand illustration of Grudem’s argument, as Anglicans have been engaged in a bitter feud over women’s ordination, the veneration of homosexuality and the ordination of homosexuals, for at least the last two decades.

It is a sad state of affairs to see an organization with such a venerable history of Gospel proclamation continue to be blown asunder by the ill winds of postmodern culture. The Church of England has produced many stalwarts such as John Newton and J.C. Ryle and has, by God’s grace, done some great things for the Kingdom. Let us pray for an awakening of biblical fidelity and a return to biblical authority within the Church of England.