Edging out the men

According to recent statistics, the Anglican Church is now ordaining more women than men.

There is a female majority for the first time in the Church of England, with more women priests joining than men. This certainly bodes well for a final “yes” vote in next July’s Synod that would allow women into the Episcopate. “Official figures show that 290 women were ordained in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available,” says British newspaper The Telegraph. “By contrast, just 273 men entered the priesthood.”

It was bound to happen. The same thing occurred when girls were admitted into the ranks of altar servers in the Catholic Church -- the more the girls came, the more the boys left. Not all, thank goodness, but a good number. Now, to be sure, there is no dogmatic reason why altar servers should be restricted to boys, only the mundane fact that it was an opportunity for boys to bond with priests and consider the vocation to Holy Orders. Once it became just a group of kids who didn't mind going to Mass and even wanted to help out, the singularity of the service as a stepping stone to a particular vocation had to be minimised, since the priest couldn't be seen favouring the boys and ignoring the girls. They all have souls, and surely they're all precious in the sight of God.

But we still depend on priestly vocations. And the fact that high heels, bracelets and colourful hair accessories are terribly distracting hasn't risen to the level of a serious impediment to allowing girls on the altar. Thus we're left to make the argument that the spousal imagery is clouded when women serve the priest in this way. (I say women, because I just went to a funeral where an elderly woman sat next to the priest on the dais and served him as MC throughout the service. Jarring, to those unused to such things.)

So what of the Anglicans? I suppose their decline will continue, since they've stepped beyond "clouding the spousal image" on a lower level to actually creating a sterile, same-sex union within the priesthood itself (and hope to extend their reach into the episcopacy). How can there be spiritual children and a fruitful growth when Holy Mother Church depends on women to plant seeds? It simply doesn't work that way, as the decline proves. There are no seeds, there is no Eucharist, the Church has no authority, and the emperor lost his clothes some centuries back.

And the Pope in his wisdom calls his children home through the Ordinariate. God be praised!