Thoughts on the Priesthood

Alice C. Linsley


Some readers of Just Genesis know that I was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1988 in the Diocese of Pennsylvania by Bishop Allan Bartlett. I left the Episcopal Church on the Sunday that Gene Robinson was consecrated bishop in New Hampshire.

The celebration of gay rights, or the rights of any group, has no place in the Church. That day was the line in the sand for me. Everyone should know where their line is before the day comes when they are tempted to cross it.

I believe that I was a caring and effective church administrator and I trust that God was able to use my offerings, meager as they were at times. Yet as I stood at the altar, I sometimes had the feeling that I didn't belong there, or that I was wearing someone else's shoes. Indeed the priest wears the shoes of the Man Jesus Christ, the universal ruler-priest. Not every man can wear those shoes, and they are not meant to be worn by women ever.


(Shown right: priest of the ancient Nile Valley)

After I renounced my ordination vows I was able to dedicate myself to research and began to explore the origins of the priesthood as a biblical anthropologist. If you are interested in some of my conclusions, you might want to read some of these articles:

Ancient Words for Priests
God as Male Priest
Ten Objections to Women Priests
The Priesthood as Heavenly Ordinance
Males as Spiritual Leaders: Two Patterns
The Priesthood is About the Blood
Why Women Were Never Priests
What is a Priest?
C.S. Lewis on Women Priests
The Priesthood in Anthropological Perspective
Terah Means Priest
Aaron Was Buried in Edom