2.27.2017
And so are our impossible expectations for them.
CHR Comment: According to Barna, one out of eleven Protestant clergy in America is a woman, though they tend to serve smaller congregations.
Source: Study: Female Pastors Are on the Rise | CT Women | Christianity Today
The Catholic Church’s ban on female priests will stand forever, Pope Francis said Tuesday.
CHR Comment: Francis is frustrating progressives in the Roman Catholic Church. Although he has expressed openness on many issues, little is actually changing under his charge. Here is a significant example. Despite his apparent conservatism, he makes many statements that rile conservative Catholics.
An Anglican diocese that represents three small South American countries has broken with local tradition and is allowing women to be trained and ordained as priests.
CHR Comment: Anglicans ordain Bishops, priests, and deacons. Different Anglican provinces have different standards for whether women may be ordained into these offices. (The second link below is to a detailed Wikipedia page that charts the practices in various provinces.) The Washington Post article also mentions that the change in practice may be due to the presence and growth of Evangelicals in the three countries but it does not name who these Evangelicals are.
Source: Guyana Anglicans to allow women to be ordained as priests – The Washington Post
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women_in_the_Anglican_Communion
CHR Comment: In recent years there has been a conservative trend in the Latvian Lutheran Church (ELCL) as the article states they have not been ordaining women ministers for some years already. This is a substantial change in direction that will receive notice from other Lutheran church bodies around the world. Historically, Lutheran churches did not have women’s ordination until the twentieth century.
Source: Latvian Lutheran church officially bans women’s ordination
In 2012 this purported fragment of a Coptic manuscript made headlines because in the text Jesus referred to “My wife.” Yale professors now conclude that it is a forgery. The article explains how they have reached that conclusion.
Why would a forger create this so-called Gospel? Likely motives include issues of women’s rights in the church such as the recent decision of the Church of England to ordain women bishops.
New clues cast doubt on ‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’ – CNN.com.
The recent decision of Anglicans to approve woman bishops has greatly disrupted ecumenical discussions with Eastern Orthodox. The Orthodox view the decision as cultural rather than theological.
Orthodox Church says women bishops vote closes down talks |.
church history review 