Monday 7 July 2008

Women Bishops and Collaborative Leadership

I watched some of the reports on the General Synod vote with mixed feelings. While I have no problem with the concept of women bishops, I do feel a little uncomfortable about some of the language being used.

On women bishops (as such) I am convinced the Paul has a point - in Christ there is no male or female, Jew nor Gentile, etc... And I can't see why we need to wait for universal acceptance - there are other branches of the Universal Church who don't have them - there are others that do... The same applies to other "innovations". We need to do what we think is right.

Having said all this, I am uncomfortable with the idea of women (or men) who are seeking positions where other people can "serve under" them. Is this a debate about power and status? Are there women priests out there who would like to join men at the top of the clerical pyramid? I hope not, but this was the way it was presented on TV.

The issue for me is the model of episcope we are seeking to develop. In an age when we are aiming to build collaborative leadership we need people who want to "serve with" rather than "lord over". I don't care whether our bishops are male of female, but I do care about the ministry they model.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree; the real issue is about the nature of leadership much more than gender.