Why can women not be Anglican priests or bishops?

Answer 1

Because they are not supposed to hold positions of power.

Anglican Catholic View!

It is all mixed up! I left the Canterbury Communion in 1994 at the time of Women's Ordination. The problem isn't women, they run most parishes! For me and my Church, it is a matter of Holy Tradition. For some two thousand years we have never had women priests or,'priestesses'. AS far as we can tell, Our Lord, who was quite progressive in His dealings with both men and women didn't have women apostles or elders. The early church seems to have done without them and there's no reference in scripture! In view of the ',hurrah', raised by the spectre of Women in orders amongst both Orthodox and Romanists, it would perhaps have been better for wider discussions amongst the Catholics of all three jurisdictions.

Correction of the Question - and one of the answersActually women CAN and ARE priests and bishops in the Anglican Church. Many African and American Anglican Churches have had women bishops for years, and the Church of England will soon follow suit. Women priests within the Church of England have been ordained since the 1990s - and about time.

Regarding the above answer, the answerer commented that it was 'his' church - but as we know it is GOD's Church. During extensive discussions on women's priesthood at parish lever, deanery, diocesan and general synod level and right across the Anglican church worldwide, the Holy Spirit was invoked at every opportunity to guide and bless decisions made. Those who led discussions bent over backwards to discern that it was not theirwill that prevailed, but what GOD wanted for the Church. The result was the ordination of women. Sadly there were those who would not accept this, and who fought against the preceived will of God, and left the Church as a result.

There is absolutely NO reason, historical, scriptural or theological why women cannot be priests or bishops. Contrary to the above answer, women played an VERY important role in the early Church as leaders and ministers. In fact, in Priscilla, Lydia and others, many women were Church leaders in the early Church and presided at the Eucharist - a priestly function. The role of these women is clearly described in the Book of Acts, and other female Church leaders are mentioned by name in greetings by Paul in his letters. The Fratio Panis - a fresco of a Eucharist found in the Rome Catacombs and dating from the early Church confirms a Eucharist taking place where the president is (if you take into account her hairstyle and ample bosom) clearly a woman.

Even Paul - often accused unfairly of being misogynistic - declared in his letter to the Galatians that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus". A pity that some want to go against Paul's teaching and add....."er yes.... but that doesnt apply to the priesthood!".

To suggest, as the answerer does above, that Jesus somehow dismissed women is misogynistic in the extreme. Jesus had women round him all the time. He taught Mary, the sister of Martha, Kingdom values. He spoke not only to women (a social taboo) but also to foreign women of a race hated by Jews (eg the Samaritan woman at the well). He even appeared after the resurrection first to a woman (Mary Magdalene) and not to a man!

So, the Anglican Church has had women clergy for well over a decade, and is at last dragging itself into the 21st century. Sadly there are those who will still maintain it should keep 'traditional values' (and let's not forget that in the 18th Century, the 'traditional' values of the Church even supported slavery) and will not be content until the Church dies a death that it would so richly deserve unless it embraced the fact that all humanity is equal - women and men - and all have a place in serving God in the role of a priest - or a bishop.