Bishop Millsaps was sent a copy of the article by Peter Stanford entiled "More sex please, we're vicars ..." (The Observer, November 19, 2006), and replied with the following words (published here with the Bishop's permission):
Dear D-,
This is a very interesting article and I thank you for sending it out. However, Peter Sanford is mistaken if he thinks all who cannot go along with the "priesting " of women think that women are inferior. The opposite is more likely the case.
A priest, like a deacon or even a bishop, is a servant. He is the one who washes feet and hauls off garbage. He is also the one who offers himself, if the barbarians are determined to behead somebody. Think of the recent martyrs in Iraq and even in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most were men. This is right and proper. The women, like Mary, are to be protected and shielded so they may do their superior work of bearing and nurturing children. Men cannot give birth and cannot nurse(give suck). In those ways men are inferior.
As an Anglican I am persuaded that most clergy should be married. Some have a call to celibacy and a gift for it , as you yourself clearly have. Neither sex is "second-rate" before God although if one insists one gender must be first-class, and the other must be put in "economy" any learned and devout Christian, even before seeing the movie called "The Nativity Story ", would know how the seating would be done.
Have you ever seen a statue or an ikon with Mary walking and Joseph on the donkey? If so, send me a picture.
Please feel free to send this around as I am ready for debate on this one. My wife is far superior to me in many matters, including spiritual ones . But she is set against the notion of women priests far more than I am.
Faithfully,
+William
Dear D-,
This is a very interesting article and I thank you for sending it out. However, Peter Sanford is mistaken if he thinks all who cannot go along with the "priesting " of women think that women are inferior. The opposite is more likely the case.
A priest, like a deacon or even a bishop, is a servant. He is the one who washes feet and hauls off garbage. He is also the one who offers himself, if the barbarians are determined to behead somebody. Think of the recent martyrs in Iraq and even in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most were men. This is right and proper. The women, like Mary, are to be protected and shielded so they may do their superior work of bearing and nurturing children. Men cannot give birth and cannot nurse(give suck). In those ways men are inferior.
As an Anglican I am persuaded that most clergy should be married. Some have a call to celibacy and a gift for it , as you yourself clearly have. Neither sex is "second-rate" before God although if one insists one gender must be first-class, and the other must be put in "economy" any learned and devout Christian, even before seeing the movie called "The Nativity Story ", would know how the seating would be done.
Have you ever seen a statue or an ikon with Mary walking and Joseph on the donkey? If so, send me a picture.
Please feel free to send this around as I am ready for debate on this one. My wife is far superior to me in many matters, including spiritual ones . But she is set against the notion of women priests far more than I am.
Faithfully,
+William
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