Celebrating 25 years of women’s ordination

When I saw this photo, I thought the Rev. Jane Willis was celebrating the Eucharist. You know, the thing that Christians do because it was commanded by the most important person to enter history to commemorate the most important event to occur in history: God becoming flesh, dwelling among us, taking our sin upon himself, giving his life for us and reconciling us to God the Father.

Then I read the caption, saw the grin and realised it was something of far greater cosmic import: 25 years of lady priests. A silly mistake that anyone could have made.

Women priests: it’s all about money and touching

Let me preface this by admitting that I am ambivalent about Anglican women priests: I think there are good arguments on both sides.

That being said, I find it very difficult to sympathise with a binary gender category that, having attained the status of their polar opposite binary gender category in every regard other than filthy Mammon and inappropriate touching, is still whining that they are paid less and touched more (or, perhaps, touched less?) than their polar opposite binary gender category.

I thought being an Anglican priest was a calling, a vocation, not an ecclesiastical rendering of capitalist profiteering. And I would really like to know the ratio of priestly female/male inappropriate touching incidents. Have you ever encountered a female priest you longed to touch inappropriately?  Me neither.

From here:

Four decades after the first women were ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada, much progress remains to be made, say female priests who profess to have struggled with everything from unequal pay to inappropriate touching by some parishioners. Last week (28 November to 1 December), 40 female priests from the Anglican Church of Canada gathered at St James Anglican Church in Stratford, Ontario, for “Unmasking the Feminine,” a conference marking the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women in the church. For participants, the event seemed an occasion both for celebrating the achievements made in advancing the rights of women and being mindful of the challenges many say yet remain.