Word: ordain
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Conservative Episcopalians angered by their denomination's decision to ordain women as priests have been quitting the Mother Church to form their own "Anglican Church of North America." Last week members of Good Shepherd, the second oldest Episcopal church in Columbia, S.C., voted 104 to 48 to join the schism. And where will the separatists hold services? At the Young Women's Christian Association in downtown Columbia, that's where. "Maybe this is God's way of underscoring the fact that this is not an antifeminist movement," said Irvin D. Parker, one of the new dissidents...
...tolerant view of the dissidents. They passed a freedom-of-conscience clause specifying that no one should be "coerced or penalized in any manner" for refusing to recognize women priests. In a separate statement, they gave the same freedom to Allin, who indicated that he would not personally ordain a woman priest or receive Communion from...
...church affairs is open to "illegitimate or uncontrolled use"; the statement, however, also notes that Catholicism is trying to overcome the "juridical outlook" of the past. It avoids such specific obstacles to union as the Catholic ban on contraception or the recent decision by Anglicans in some countries to ordain women priests...
Last week the gays received a setback, when the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in Baltimore voted that it would be "injudicious if not improper" to ordain homosexuals. After a two-hour session the church reaffirmed its position that "the practice of homosexuality is a sin." However, the delegates also voted to undertake a study of the "perplexing" question of homosexuality, leaving the door open a crack for gays in the future. Said the final report: "We do not believe that a position taken in any period sets forth the final understanding of His Word to the Church...
There is already impassioned talk of schism, whether the convention says yes or no. If ordination wins, the bishops may propose a local-option solution like that adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada, where each diocese has the right to decide whether to ordain women as priests. Chicago's Bishop James Montgomery says he would not bar ordinations in his diocese, but he might refuse to conduct them himself...