CHURCH UNITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3701, 8 October 1927, Page 4

CHURCH UNITY.

WOMEN AS PRIESTS.

STARTLING PROPOSAL.

London, October 5.

Two outspoken addresses marked the opening of the Church Congress at Ipswich. Dr. Wittingham, in his presidential address on the work of the Church in the modern village, condemned the'tendency to regard the Kingdom of God as something disconnected with daily life. It was not incompatible with the feeding of pigs and the hoeing of turnips. It was fatal to judge of the success of the Church’s message by the extent of churchgoing. Moreover, we must get rid of the spirit of competition. “We need not suppose when we secure a NonConformist as a churchman that we have done something in itself meritorious in God’s kingdom, or that it does him injury if a churchman becomes a Non-Conformist,” he said. “We must get rid of the notion that it is wrong to go to chapel. There arc differences in administration, but the same Lord.” He concluded with an earnest appeal for Christian unity. Canon Raven, of Liverpool Cathedral, advocated the admission of womert to full priesthood with the prospect of an episcopate if and when qualified. A questioner: “Why did not our Lord ordain a woman-apostle?” Canon Raven: “Who am I that I should dare to answer that?” Another questioner asked whether it would be possible for a woman to represent God, Who was masculine. Canon Raven replied; “Do you really mean to maintain that God is masculine? That is so extraordinary heretical that I can hardly believe a priest would give utterance to it. Christ said: ‘ln Me there is neither male nor female.’ Yours may be good Mohammedanism, but it is bad Christianity.”