What a Waste
Michael McGough’s article on women’s ordination to the priesthood (“The Lefebvrite-Feminist Coalition?” TAS, August 1989) was a waste of paper. One does not read TAS for theology, of course, but this piece contained no news and no ideas. Your hero Mencken would have been ashamed of you for failing even to come up with a credible slander of the Christian religion.
I object mostly to the smugness with which McGough protects his ignorance regarding the dogma of the apostolic succession. Modern scholars think that the structure of the threefold ministry was not fully defined and differentiated during the apostolic period, and McGough managed to find a statement from an Anglican-Roman dialogue (ARCIC) on that subject. This is not to say, however, that the ordained ministry is discontinuous. That is a different subject. Bishops are mentioned in the New Testament, and only a scholar who regards that text as a complete forgery would doubt the continuity of the episcopate. Belief in the succession is one of ARCIC’s premises.
Granted, McGough regards the concept of priesthood as a superstition. But he refers constantly to the concept of sacramental validity without displaying a hint of curiosity about what it means to the people he’s discussing, or offering the barest definition, even a satirical one. When noting the distinction between validity and legality (what is “licit”), he offers the brilliant comment that his distinction is “legalistic.”
Now let me tell you the news. The controversy over lady priests has a context: the conflict throughout Western society between cultural traditionalists, who believe in the reality of human nature, and gnostic liberals who are captive to the lesbian-witch feminists (see Elizabeth Kristol’s piece on “herstory’’ in the July issue). Among other things, the priesthood is a symbol of faith, and that is why people are fighting over it.
You also ought to know (as McGough fails to report) that the creation of the first lady bishop by the Episcopal Church in February hit the Anglican Communion like an earthquake. Most Anglicans in the world regard her as neither licit nor valid, and the consequences of that arrogant liberal act are only beginning.
If you don’t care, then save the trees!
-T John Jamieson
Chairman, Chicago Chapter of
the Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church
Evanston, Illinois
