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Showing posts from November, 2012

Women Bishops in the Church of England - sigh

I had a couple of people ask me if the Church of England’s decision last week to not allow women to be elected as bishops has any impact on The Episcopal Church.   The short answer is no.   The Episcopal Church is completely independent from the Church of England in our polity (political structure).   We make decisions for our Church at the General Convention held every 3 years.   The Church of England makes decisions for their Church at their General Council held every 3 years.   While both groups claim fidelity to the Anglican Communion, their General Council’s decisions do not impact any of the independent churches that share a common ancestry with the Anglican Church. A bit of history – The Episcopal Church’s General Convention voted to allow for the ordination of women at the 1976 General Convention.   At that time, a long theological debate about whether or not to limit the ordination of women to only deacons or priests had taken place.   The ultimate conclusion, after muc