THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND CELEBRATES TWENTY YEARS OF DISOBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF GOD!!

Church of England Celebrates 20 Years of Disobedience to God's Word

Screenshot: BBC News

On 12 March 1994, a group of 32 women became the first to be ordained as priests in the Church of England. Today, more than 20 years later, the Church of England will celebrate this gross departure and disobedience to the Word of God. More than one thousand women will march through the streets from Westminster Abbey to St. Paul's Cathedral, where a special service will be held to honor the occasion.

Christian Today reports:

The Archbishop of Canterbury will be preaching to representatives of all 42 dioceses of the Church of England, and every woman who was ordained in 1994 has been invited to take part, sharing Bible readings and their reflections on their ordination. (Source)

Bishop Barry Rogerson, who officiated that first ordination service, also will offer an address at today's event. Reporting on this occasion, the BBC adds that "a large screen will be situated outside St Paul's to relay the service to people outside." The Christian Today coverage continues:

The Very Reverend June Osborne, a 1994 ordinand who is now the first female Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, shared her view of that historic year: "Like all special days in your life the memory of my own ordination at St Paul's Cathedral is still vivid. I feel immensely privileged to have seen history changed in those months of welcoming women into the ministry of the Church. 

"This is the season for celebration and thanksgiving because opening the ordained ministry to women has been the true and right thing to do. 

"Both women and men have spiritual skills and gifts to offer. Both women and men are charged with making the world a better place and defending the poor. Women as well as men make good clergy who serve their communities and pray for their people."

(Source)

"Opening the ordained ministry to women has been the true and right thing to do," says ordained priest June Osborne. Is this accurate? By what measure was this decision "true and right"? By the world's standards, or by God's? By the demands of society, or by the perfect command of our holy and sovereign Lord?

In his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul indicates that women at the church in Ephesus may already have been appropriating for themselves the leadership roles within the church that were reserved for men. In correction, Paul restates for the church what is God's intended order: 

A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. (1 Timothy 2:11–15)

In his letter to Titus, Paul addresses men and women within the church at all stages of life. In doing so, he writes,

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.(Titus 2:3–5)

"That the word of God will not be dishonored." As has been stated previously on this blog in reference to this same issue:

In the church, when women usurp the authority granted to men, or when men abdicate their role, thus opening the door for women to take their place, the Word of God is reviled. It is disobeyed, defied and denigrated. The roles of men and women within the Body of Christ are clearly defined by God Himself. The distinction between these roles does not nullify the glorious reality of spiritual equality in Christ (Rom. 3:22; Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13), but it does demonstrate the importance of submission—by both men and women—to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. 

(Source)

Yet today the Church of England will celebrate its reviling of God's Word. And while this causes us to shake our heads, we find that we are not surprised. Paul wrote to Timothy that "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths" (2 Tim 4:3–4). Often this is attributed merely to the watered-down, salvation-less gospel of the seeker-driven movement, but this celebration of female priests also reveals an intolerance of sound doctrine within the professing church. The worldly goats who sit deceived within the church's walls would much prefer to have their ears tickled and their need for cultural acceptance and relevance satiated than to actively submit to the holy and good commands of God.

Thus, as the Church of England celebrates its sinfulness, may those who love God's Word pray for steadfastness and boldness in the midst of a society and in the midst of professing Christendom that is growing ever-hostile to the truth.

Further Reading
Women Elders: the World vs. the Word
Replacing the 'Violent' Cross
Max Lucado Likens Christine Caine to Paul, Mary and Esther