Women Priests: Alternative or False Narrative?

Alice C. Linsley

The Presidential Counselor, Kellyanne Conway, came under criticism during a Meet the Press interview on 22 January 2017 when she spoke of "additional facts and alternative information.” Conway later explained her remarks: "Two plus two is four. Three plus one is four. Partly cloudy, partly sunny. Glass half full, glass half empty. Those are alternative facts."

Jacques Derrida, the “father” of deconstructionism, would have loved Conway’s perspective.[1] He wrote about the subordinated voice and how it must be heeded if we are to grasp the greater meaning of a narrative. The dominate narrative of contemporary society is untrue not only because it is half the story. It is untrue because without the subordinate narrative we cannot explore the relationship of the opposites and the signage of the Male-Female binary set. The dominant-subordinate character of the Male-Female binary set points to the Presence; it bears witness to the Transcendent God.  Derrida called this “supplementarity” and it is not to be confused with complementarity. Complementarity speaks of things that naturally belong together and moves back and forth between paired entities. Supplementarity implies that the sum of the complementary entities is greater than either entity and greater than the relationship of the entities. It seeks to break out of the binary enclosure.

The logic of supplementarity involves consideration of the marginal, which in this discussion refers to the “alternative facts” of the catholic Faith concerning the priesthood. We must regard this as “alternative” because our catholic Faith is radically subordinated, even among those who call themselves “Christians.” Ironically, by the logic of supplementarity, the catholic faith nevertheless defines the dominant cultural narrative about men and women. For the Church, supplementarity of male and female is an essential mark of sacred Tradition and is expressed in Scripture.[2]  Further, the assertion of the divinely-created Male-Female set is affirmed by empirical observation of the natural world.

For Anglicans the authority of Scripture and Tradition is central to our identity. Further, we share a rich heritage of reasoned observation of the natural world. To disregard our Anglican heritage in favor of a false narrative that presents women as priests would be fatal to our identity. More importantly, it would perpetuate the Marxian/Feminist lie.

The Marxian/Feminist narrative reduces all to a level plain. It strips away “hier”-archy, that is, priest ranking. Are we surprised? It must do so because ontologically, linguistically, anthropologically, and empirically, the priest is a male ruler in the realm of a God who is called “Father.” Saint Augustine asked, “What do I love when I love my God?” The catholic Faith responds unequivocally, “I love the Father because He first loved me.” The catholic Faith flows against the social current toward the Triune God who deconstructs every human artifice.

E.L. Mascall presents aspects of the false narrative in his treatise Women Priests?[3] He writes,

The view that sex is irrelevant in deciding who should or should not be ordained to the priesthood has been based on a belief that there is a sexless human nature common to men and women underlying their sex differences.  This view is no longer tenable.  There is in fact a masculine and a feminine human nature with some complication from the shadow of the opposite sex in each.”

Derrida called the shadow a “trace” and he argued that unless the trace is pursued the philosophical project in the West is dead. Philosophy, theology, and general good reasoning, require dialectical tension.

Mascall also writes: “A refusal to recognise this polarity of the sexes tends to create not satisfaction, but further and more deep-seated restlessness.”

The false but dominant narrative concerning women and the priesthood is predicated on (1) a conception of social evolution that claims authority for itself without a basis in real life, and (2) a conception of progressive revelation that would have us believe that the Church, Scripture, and Tradition are in the process of being redefined. The catholic Faith bears witness to the fixed nature of divine revelation as reflecting an immutable God. Even Derrida - that sophisticated, Arabic-speaking Jew, who secretly was named Elijah at his eight-day circumcision - has to admit this. In his autobiographical work Circumfession, he reflects on how deconstruction advanced revelation of “the constancy of God in my life.”[4]

If Scripture, Church Tradition, and reasoned observation of patterns in nature are not enough to persuade the reader that the priesthood of the Church is categorically masculine in nature, consider that the priesthood of the Church emerged from the all-male priesthood of Abraham's Horite Hebrew ancestors, for whom the work of a priest involved asceticism, fidelity in marriage, and purity of life. The objection that there were women “priests” in the Greco-Roman world is irrelevant as these were not priests, but shamans who consulted the spirits while in a trace state, something forbidden to the Hebrew priest. The Scriptures recognize wise women such as Deborah, Huldah, and Ana, but they condemn Saul for consulting the female medium of Endor (I Sam. 28:7).

After all this, if there remains a temptation to trifle with the Church’s priesthood, consider what the Fathers have to say.

St. John Chrysostom wrote, “The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.”

Speaking of the exclusivity of the priestly office, St. John Chrysostom wrote, “When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.”

In his Oration against the Gentiles, Athanasius declared: “That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the Truth.” Not a single woman is designated "priest" in the Scriptures.

St. Basil wrote in Letter 90, To the Most Holy Brethren and Bishops Found in the West: “The dogmas of the Fathers are held in contempt, the Apostolic traditions are disdained, the churches are subject to the novelties of innovators.”

St. Athanasius said: “It is fit for us to adhere to the Word of God, and not relinquish it, thinking by syllogisms to evade what is there clearly delivered.” (Tract of the Incarnation). He also said: “Ask not concerning the Trinity but learn only from the Scriptures. For the instructions which you will find there are sufficient.” (Tract of the Holy Ghost) 

Speaking about the danger of innovation, St. Basil the Great said: “Everyone who steadfastly values the old ways above these novelties, and who has preserved unchanged the tradition of the fathers both in the city and in the country, is familiar with this phrase [with whom in the doxology]. Rather, it is those never content with accepted ways who despise the old as being stale, constantly welcoming innovation, like worldings who are always chasing after the latest fashion. Observe that country people cling to ancient patterns of speech, while the adroit language of these cunning disputants always bear the brand of the latest trends of thought. But for us, what our fathers said [the received Tradition], we repeat: the same glory is given to the Father and Son; therefore we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son. But we are not content simply because this is the tradition of the Fathers. What is important is that the Fathers followed the meaning of Scripture.” [5] 

Before Anglicans worldwide fidelity to the catholic Faith is challenged by the willingness of some bishops to allow members of their flock to stray from that Faith and yet to claim its authority for themselves.

In August 2014, Foley Beach, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America, explained:

"...in our constitution and canons, we have left the issue of women's ordination for each diocese to decide. A lot of people came into the ACNA in good faith that their perspective -- including those who ordain women -- would be protected and guarded. And, people who believe in ordaining women hold their position by conscience and can Biblically argue it, although I disagree with them. This issue is a very important thing to them, and so I think it would create a lot of tension. A lot of the women priests in ACNA have stood side-by-side with a number of our bishops and clergy who are against women's ordination when they were in The Episcopal Church. These women argued for the right of these bishops to have the freedom to not ordain women. Women's ordination is a very complicated issue, because we've got people who have given their heart and soul on each side. And, these people are sincere; they're godly."[6]

The end of this course of action is a parting of ways and a widening of present divisions. This was foreseen by C.S. Lewis in this essay Priestesses in the Church?

"...I heard that the Church of England was being advised to declare women capable of Priests' Order. I am, indeed, informed that such a proposal is very unlikely to be seriously considered by the authorities. To take such a revolutionary step at the present moment, to cut ourselves off from the Christian past and to widen the divisions between ourselves and other Churches by establishing an order of priestesses in our midst, would be an almost wanton degree of imprudence. And the Church of England herself would be torn in shreds..."

Lest we regard our situation to be unique, consider that the catholic Faith has faced the challenge of innovators from the beginning. Speaking of this concern, St. Basil wrote:

Every man is a theologian; it does not matter that his soul is covered with more blemishes than can be counted. The result is that these innovators find an abundance of men to join their factions. So ambitious, self-elected men divide the government of the churches among themselves, and reject the authority of the Holy Spirit.  The ordinances of the Gospel have been thrown into confusion everywhere for lack of discipline; the jostling for high positions is incredible, as every ambitious man tries to thrust himself into high office. The result of this lust for power is that wild anarchy prevails among the people; the exhortations of those in authority are rendered utterly void and unprofitable, since every man in his arrogant delusion thinks that it is more his business to give orders to others than to obey anyone himself” (On the Holy Spirit).

NOTES

11.  Probably the best volume on Derrida’s non-method is The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, by John D. Caputo. Indiana University Press, 1997.

22. The Apostle Paul speaks of the marriage of a man and woman as ordained by God to be indissoluble. He writes, “This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:32)

33. E.J. Mascall, Women Priests? Reproduced with permission by Forward in Faith, Scotland  

44.  Geoffrey Bennington, Jacques Derrida. University of Chicago Press, 1993. Derrida's quotation found in the Circumfession, p. 154.

55. On the Holy Spirit, translated by David Anderson, St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1980

46.   Interview with Archbishop Foley Beach, 12 August 2014 at Juicy Ecumenism, The Institute of Religion and Democracy Blog 

Discern the Spirits and Pray for the ACNA

Alice C. Linsley

The ordination of women priests among Anglicans is an expression of much confusion. The elements of confusion go well beyond gender confusion. We find disordered thinking touching on the Trinity, the relationship of Scripture and Tradition, and the infusion of Pentecostalism. The 3-streams fallacy that Anglicanism is catholic, reformed, and charismatic is a serious deviation from the Anglican Way. A background in anthropology leads to my suspicion that this Pentecostal influence is simply "Christian" shamanism. It contributes to the notions of progressive revelation and the mutability of God.

This wider theological confusion made it very difficult for the bishops to correct or discipline errant bishops like James Pike, William Swing and John Spong. Even before their time, the Anglican Way was derailed in the Church of England by modernism and occultism. This is reflected in the 1938 publication of Doctrine in the Church of England, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This is the report of the Commission on Christian Doctrine appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 1922. It is the closest thing to an Anglican statement of doctrine in modern times, but note the title: Doctrine in the Church of England, not Doctrine of the Church of England. The report reveals the considerable division within Anglicanism on central points of Christian doctrine. 

Add to that the willingness of some Church of England and American clergy to dabble in the occult, and you have a dreary picture indeed. 

In 1937, Archbishop William Cosmo Gordon Lang established a committee “to discuss the relationship, if any, between spiritualism and the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church.” Although Archbishop Lang took a strong moral tone toward the failure of duty of Edward VIII in abdicating the throne, he opened the question of spiritualism by forming the committee. One of the committee members was Evelyn Underhill, who later withdrew, stating that she was “very strongly opposed to spiritualism... especially to any tendency on the part of the Church to recognize or encourage it.”

The committee delivered its report in 1939, but its findings were not made public until 1979. A similar delay took place with the 1922 publication "Doctrine in the Church of England" which was not published until 1938. As Mammana notes, "The “Conclusions of the Majority” reveal a shocking discovery of inherent value in spiritualist practices. One paragraph merits quotation without comment:

"It is often held that the practice of Spiritualism is dangerous to the mental balance, as well as to the spiritual condition, of those who take part in it, and it is clearly true that there are cases where it has become obsessional in character. But it is very difficult to judge in these cases whether the uncritical and unwise type of temperament which does undoubtedly show itself in certain spiritualists is a result or a cause of their addiction to these practices. Psychologically it is probable that persons in a condition of mental disturbance, or lack of balance, would very naturally use the obvious opportunities afforded by Spiritualism as a means of expressing the repressed emotions which have caused their disorder. This indeed is true of Christianity itself, which frequently becomes an outlet, not only for cranks, but for persons who are definitely of unstable mentality."

The committee closed with the recommendation of a sort of ecumenism between the Church of England and the spiritualist movement: “It is in our opinion important that representatives of the Church should keep in touch with groups of intelligent persons who believe in Spiritualism.”

Much of this confusion is due to the failure of seminaries. Abandonment of the Fathers, the Scriptures, and the received Messianic Tradition leads to degradation of the Anglican Way. The ACNA will either stand with the Fathers, the Scriptures, and the received Tradition on the question of women priests, or it will continue to stray from those authorities. Women are fully capable. That is not the issue. They are not called to this divine ordinance.

In conversations with younger clergy and present seminarians, I find a yearning for more intellectual integrity, deeper learning of Scripture, and greater discernment of Truth. They love the Anglican Way because they recognize the potential for a richer experience of the Body of Christ. Perhaps they will help recover some of the ground lost to the devil.

Related reading: Anglicanism and Spiritualism; The Tragedy of James Pike; Males as Spiritual Leaders: Two Patterns; Why Women Were Never Priests; Anglican Fudge: Women Priests

Anglican Fudge: Women Priests

The Anglican Church in North America is in trouble. It has placed greater weight on its polity than on catholicity. It has decided to allow individual dioceses to ordain women to the priesthood rather than require them to uphold the Church's universal (catholic) doctrine and discipline on this matter. Even after the college of bishops admitted that there is "insufficient" scriptural warrant to accept women’s ordination to the priesthood. This is Anglican fudge at its richest.

Read the statement issued by the ACNA bishops here.

In the words of Archbishop Mark Haverland, neo-Anglicans are on "the slow lane to modernist mush."

The ACNA will either stand with the Fathers, the Scriptures, and the received Messianic Tradition on the question of women priests, or it will continue to stray from those authorities. Women are fully capable. That is not the issue. They are not called to this divine ordinance.

Many members of the ACNA will be angry and disappointed by the decision to maintain the status quo. However, let's look on the bright side. The house of bishops has made progress in admitting that there is insufficient Scriptural support for ordaining women to the priesthood, and that this practice is a modern innovation.

In reality there are only about 5 American ACNA bishops who ordain women. Their waywardness can be corrected by amending the ACNA Constitution at some future synod so that all ACNA bishops will be accountable to the same catholic standard. That's where the biggest battle is likely to occur. Keep praying, folks!

Related reading:  The Mushy Thinking of Neo-Anglicans; Why Women Were Never Priests, C.S. Lewis on Priestesses in the Church; ACNA College of Bishops Issue Solomonic Decision on Women's Ordination; Discern the Spirits and Pray for the ACNA

For Anglican Readers

Bridget Mary Meehan fashions herself a Roman Catholic priest.  

This 2013 photo was taken by the Italian photographer Giulia Bianchi and appeared in this issue of National Geographic which shows women shamans. The article fails to make an important anthropological distinction between the offices of priest and shaman and their contrary worldviews. 

The question of women priests should be considered in the larger context of the Received Tradition. I have spent many years investigating that Tradition from the perspective of cultural anthropology. The priesthood of Jesus Christ is not a metaphor. His mother was the daughter of a shepherd-priest Yoachin. Jesus belonged to the most archaic priesthood known. The Bible reveals that the priestly lines intermarried, were attached to great kingdom builders, and dispersed throughout the ancient world. They were known for their devotion to the Creator, and for their pure and sober lives. Messianic expectation began with them at least as early at 4000 BC. So when we speak of Received Tradition we are speaking of something older than all the world religions; long before the religions that emerged in the Axial Age. That is why I find it ironic that those who favor the ordination of women often attempt to justify this using the argument of antiquity. The simple fact is this: in the Received Tradition of the Church, women never served as priests.

Other related articles include:

The Mushy Thinking of Neo-Anglicans

C.S. Lewis on Women Priests

Alice C. Linsley's address on Creation and the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ

Alice C. Linsley's address to the International Catholic Congress of Anglicans

The Anglican Priesthood in Anthropological Perspective

Women Priests and the Anglican Church of North America

Women's Ordination Must be Addressed

Impressions of North American Anglicanism

The Feminization of Anglican Orders

Males as Spiritual Leaders: Two Patterns

Blood and Gender Distinctions

Shamanic Practice and the Priesthood

Female Shamans, Not Women Priests

Why Women Were Never Priests

What is Lost When Women Serve as Priests?

Binary Distinctions of the Hebrew Horites 

Blood Guilt and Christ's Priesthood

God as Male Priest

What is a Priest?

Priests and Shamans Hold Different Worldviews

The Modernist-Traditionalist Divide in Anglicanism

What Christians Believe

Ft. Worth Talk

For those interested in the address I gave at the July 2015 International Catholic Congress of Anglicans.

Prayer of Archbishop William Laud

O gracious Father,

we humbly beseech thee for thy holy Catholic Church;

that thou wouldest be pleased to fill it with all truth, in all peace.

Where it is corrupt, purify it;

where it is in error, direct it;

where in any thing it is amiss, reform it.

Where it is right, establish it;

where it is in want, provide for it;

where it is divided, reunite it;

for the sake of him who died and rose again,

and ever liveth to make intercession for us,

Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.

Amen.

A.N. Wilson on Bishops in the Church of England

In 1983, British biographer and novelist A.N. Wilson wrote, in his Life of John Milton, “It needs an act of supreme historical imagination to be able to recapture an atmosphere in which Anglican bishops might be taken seriously; still more, one in which they might be thought threatening.”
 

Lament

My friend John Woods asked this question here and posted my response to him at his blog. I know there are others who share our lament.  Read John's post and pray for him. Offer godly advice.

An Evangelical Anglican...Sadly Adrift Again

I usually hate to ask for directions, but...

Q."The catholic Christian must therefore be discerning." I've noticed that you refer several times to "catholicity" or small 'c' catholic Christians. What are the criteria for catholicity? In which churches may one find it?

A.The first question will determine the answer to the second. It is often easier to define something by saying what it isn't and that is what I have tried to do here.

I would say that Catholicity has the following distinctive marks. It involves the full sacramental life of the Church, apostolic teaching, the all-male priesthood devoted to purity of life, the authority of Scripture and Holy Tradition, oversight of bishops who are in submission to the Gospel and to one another, the Trinity, the Creed, and reverence for holy things such as Mary and the angels. It will express itself in worship using time-honored liturgies and with music that expresses reverent adoration. It is salt for a bland world. It is beauty to restore the divine image when we become cloaked in ugliness.

Now as to where we find this? You might find it at a church near you. So much depends on the Priest's vision of what the Church at worship should be. Of one thing I am confident, we will experience the fullness and beauty when Christ returns.

...full sacramental life...reverent adoration...salt for a bland world...restore the divine image when we become cloaked in ugliness...the Priest's vision...

Honestly, the only church I've ever visited that meets all the criteria is Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church in downtown Sacramento. http://holyascensionchurch.com/ I did feel as if Christ and Mary and angels and saints were there. The Liturgy was wonderful, moving, and even frightening, and, unfortunately for me, entirely in Church Slavonic. The parishioners had obviously not integrated into American culture and clearly weren't in any hurry to do so. The priest, Father Paul, was very polite, but he frankly pointed out that in addition to experiencing its beauty and power, one also needs a rational apprehension of the Liturgy. Since they don't plan to use English and neither my family or I will be mastering Russian/Slavonic anytime soon, conversion is not a realistic option.

Read it all here.

Why I'm Not a Protestant

Alice C. Linsley

I was raised a Protestant in the Baptist Church and over many years I found my way to catholicity. My first encounter with Anglicanism was at St. Luke’s Anglican Mission in Isfahan, Iran. Being a Christian in that country was a serious matter. Persecution of the Iranian parishioners was common and the expatriate community was aware of their hardships.

The fervency of commitment and the humility of the English missioner priest left a lasting impression on me. When I joined the Anglican Church, I believed that I was entering into the fullness of the “one holy catholic and apostolic faith.” In retrospect, I believe that I had merely entered a liturgical form of Protestantism.  

Years later, the crisis of authority in the Anglican Communion has confirmed my suspicion. The crisis clearly involves Anglo-Catholics as well, so inclinations to Rome do not constitute the kind of catholicity that makes for unity in faith and practice.

Clergy seeking refuge from the Anglican crisis through the Personal Ordinariate are likely to be disappointed. They may be able to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Roman Catholic Church, but the crisis of authority will follow them. It seems inherent in the Anglican Tradition that they hope to take with them.

As an Anglican I was never persuaded by the Protestant view of Scripture and Tradition. It simply is not possible to separate the two in the way that Protestants do. The Protestant disposition to set aside Tradition makes it easier to embrace modernist innovations such as same-sex ceremonies and women priests. The Episcopal Church exemplifies this, as well as the loss of theological sagacity.

The Protestant flavor of Anglicanism is more than a reaction to Rome and more than a product of historical events. Among some Anglicans it is the heritage of revivalism. Certainly, this is the case among many East African Anglicans and among low church Evangelicals.

Among others, it is often a preference motivated by denominational pride. Some Anglicans prefer the Articles of Religion above the writings of the Church Fathers. I regard the 39 Articles as a significant historical document that reflects a specific period of Anglican theology development, but not as an Anglican confession, the way the Book of Concord is for Lutherans. 

I remember being asked to teach an adult class on the Articles of Religion because the priest considered this an essential feature of Anglican identity, but when I asked about teaching all the historical documents, I was told that Chalcedon Doctrine on the Two Natures of Christ and the Creed of Athanasius were too difficult for the laity to grasp. I was never very interested in making better Anglicans. In my view, the best Anglicans are thoroughly catholic. I think of figures such as Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, and Evelyn Underhill.

In my experience, thoughtful Protestants gravitate to catholicity because they sense that ultimately Protestantism lacks authority. It is removed from the fullness of holy Tradition concerning the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, and the ecumenical councils of the Church.  

St. John of Damascus wrote, "I beseech the people of God, the holy nation, to hold fast to the tradition of the Church... for the gradual erosion of what has been handed down to us will bring down the whole fabric in ruins."  St. John's warning has found fulfillment within Protestantism, especially in America where tradition is not valued.

What I experienced and learned as a "Priest"

Serving as a "priest" revealed to me the theological and hermeneutical weaknesses of Protestantism. I grasped intuitively that the full sacramental life of the Church had been lost by Protestants. I had yet to figure out how my being a priestess added to the confusion. That would come after years of research into the etiology of the priesthood among Abraham's Hebrew ancestors.

As a priest I leaned toward the high church Anglo-Catholic wing but found no acceptance there. Instead, I was often confronted by harsh words, and even verbal abuse, especially from gay clergy of that persuasion. I recall a drunk Church of England cleric, who upon discovering my opposition to his homosexual agenda, launched into an embarrassing tirade at a dinner hosted by my Senior Warden and his gracious wife.

Ultimately, I am not a Protestant because Protestants are removed from catholicity, in the fullest sense of that term. They claim Scripture as a first and only authority (Sola Scriptura) but invent doctrines like Young Earth Creationism, Antinomianism, Pentecostalism, and the Rapture. They show evidence of being confused about the Gospel, the Trinity, and the two natures of Jesus Christ.

There is a rush to the Christmas and Easter seasons without periods of preparation. The Communion of Saints is a foreign concept, and the idea the justified living and the justified reposed are united in Christ and not separated by death is regarded as heretical.

The Incarnation is rarely spoken of, and the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is misunderstood and misrepresented as idolatry. This reveals how poorly most Protestants understand the Bible. In a true sense the Bible is Mary's story from Genesis to Revelation. She is alluded to in Genesis 3:15. She was anticipated among the widely dispersed Hebrew clans. She is identified in the New Testament accounts, and the Book of Revelation proclaims the supernatural preservation of Mary and her child Jesus.

Mary is the "Woman" who brings forth the “Seed” of God. Through His death and Resurrection, He crushes the serpent’s head and restores communion with God. Jesus claimed to be that Seed in John 12:24. The Bible and Holy Tradition are consistent in what they testify concerning the fulfillment of the first biblical prophecy in Genesis 3:15.

The "reformed and always reforming" tendency among Protestants leads to continual efforts to update worship, preaching styles, and congregational structures to make them relevant. This tendency expresses itself in contemporary praise music, largely passive audiences, a consumer mindset, and self-help sermons. There are few sacred mysteries such as can be experienced only through the full sacramental life of the Church.

Related reading: Another Response to "Why I'm Not a Protestant"; Why Women Were Never Priests; Adam Named the Animals; The Unintended Reformation; Ideologies Opposed to Holy Tradition; What is Holy Tradition?; What is a Priest?; Christianity Lacks Originality; Some Thoughts on Women Priests; Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, The End of American Protestantism

Women Priests and the Anglican Church of North America

Alice C. Linsley

It is a historical and anthropological observation that no woman ever served in the office of priest until 1944, at which time Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained by Ronald Hall, Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong, in response to the crisis among Anglicans in Communist China. She later stepped down from serving as a priest. In 1976 the Episcopal Church broke the age-old tradition of the all-male priesthood by vote of General Convention. At that time the "irregular" ordinations of the "Philadelphia Eleven" and the "Washington Four" were made regular. The first woman ordained to the priesthood in the United States was Ellen Marie Barrett (January 1977). She was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York. Ellen Barrett, a lesbian, had served as Integrity's first co-president. Other lesbians had been among the Philadelphia Eleven. In the United States, the ordination of women and gay and lesbian "rights" were intertwined from the beginning, so that today it is difficult to treat these as separate issues. Both have been framed as "equal rights" issues, revealing a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the priesthood.

What is the Priesthood?

Despite what feminists, politically-correct academics, and rights activists might say, the ministry of priests in the Church developed organically from the Horite priesthood of Abraham's people and was exclusively the work of a select group of men (a ruler-priest caste) whose devotion to the worship of the Creator involved, by today's standards, extreme asceticism and purity of life. The objection that there were women priestesses in the Greco-Roman world is irrelevant as this is not the origin of the priesthood known by Jesus Christ and his followers.

Contrary to the position of the Roman Church, Horite priests were married and enjoyed sexual relations with their wives. However they abstained from sex, shaved their bodies, fasted, and entered periods of intense prayer in preparation for their time of service at the temple or shrine.

In the ancient world Horite priests were known for their purity, sobriety and devotion to the High God whose emblem was the Sun. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

The Horite priests, who are often called "Habiru" (Hebrew) in ancient texts, worshiped the Creator when other peoples were worshiping lesser deities. They anticipated the coming of the Seed of God (Gen. 3:15) and believed that He would be born of their ruler-priest bloodlines. That is why the lines of priests intermarried exclusively and why unchaste daughters of priests were burned alive (Lev. 21:9). Sexual impurity was not tolerated.

In the ancient world, only men born into the priestly caste could serve a priests and many of those never did. Some instead served as warriors, scribes, rulers and metal workers. There was never a question about having a "right" to this work. It was appointed to those who were born into this order, and this is the order from which Jesus Christ descended.

The Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern remained unchanged from the Neolithic period of Genesis 4 and 5 (the lines of Cain and Seth) to the time of Joseph and Mary. The pattern can be traced through the Bible using the anthropological tool of kinship analysis, and it is an impossibility that this pattern could have been written back into the text at a late date.

There were priests among Jesus' first followers. Nicodemus and Joseph of Hari-Mathea were members of the Sanhedrin and of the Horite ruler-priest caste. Hari-Mathea (not Arimathea) means "of the Horite line of Matthew." This was Jesus' ancestry through both Mary and Joseph. Horite priests expected a Righteous Ruler to defeat death and lead his people to immortality. This is why Horite priests took great precautions in the preparation of the bodies of dead kings. It is likely that Joseph of Hari-Mathea and Joseph, the husband of Mary, were both of the Pharisee persuasion.

As a ruler-priest Joseph would have appointed men who were qualified to serve as priests in Britain. Being of advanced age, he would have been older than Jesus and the disciples. This suggests that the priesthood came to Britain very early and is older than generally supposed. It must be nearly as early as the episcopacy of Evodius of Antioch (53–69 A.D.) and the episcopacy of James the Just of Jerusalem (d. 69 A.D.), but would likely precede the episcopacy of Linus of Rome (67-79 A.D.).

Further, the legend concerning Joseph of Hari-Mathea coming to Britain has basis in science. Horite priests were among the Ainu and genetic studies have confirmed that the Ainu dispersed widely across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Some came to the British Isles and from there migrated to Finland, Greenland, Labrador and Eastern Canada where they are called Micmac. Anthropological studies have shown that the Ainu were among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors. Further, Genesis 41 confirms that Joseph, the son of Jacob, married the daughter of a priest of On (Heliopolis) and On has been identified as an Ainu shrine city.

If Joseph as ruler-priest, member of the Sanhedrin, and a kinsman of Jesus Christ brought the Christian priesthood to Britain, Anglicans should be especially careful to preserve the Horite pattern of the priesthood.


Jesus' Horite Ancestry

Priests were dispersed throughout Palestine. Settlements often took their names from the priestly division that resided there. For example, Nazareth was the home of the eighteenth priestly division, Hapi-tsets (a word of Nilotic origin), so Nazareth is Happizzez in 1 Chronicles 24:15. Nazareth was the home of Joseph who married Jesus' mother. Mary was from Bethlehem. Her full name would have been "Miriam Daughter of Joachim, Son of Pntjr, Priest of Nathan of Bethlehem." From predynastic times among the Egyptian Horites, ntjr designated God or the king. Pntjr is Pa-Netjer, the name of Joachim’s mother. The Horite priests traced descent through both the mother and the father. A limestone stela (1539-1291 B.C.) bearing the names of Pekhty-nisu and his wife Pa-netjer is on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. The Ancient Egyptian word nisu (ruler) became nasi in Hebrew and applied to the High Priest who presided over the Sanhedrin.

Through Mary the promise of Genesis 3:15 came to be fulfilled. The Seed of the Woman crushed the serpent's head and death has been overcome. The ancient expectation of a divine royal son who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality was fulfilled.

The connection between Bethlehem and the Horites is alluded to in I Chronicles 4:4, which lists Hur/Hor as the "father of Bethlehem." To this day Jews call their ancestors Horim, which is Horite in English. The ancient Horite priests were devotees of Horus, the son of Ra, the creator. Horus' conception took place by divine overshadowing. He is the pattern by which Jesus would be recognized by Abraham's descendants as the Son of God. When the Virgin Mary asked how she was to have a child since she "knew" no man, "The angel answered her and said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy child will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)


The Church is the Protector of Divine Tradition

Messianic expectation first emerged among the Horites and is central to the Christian faith, as is the all-male priesthood. There are threads interwoven in the fabric of the tradition received by the Church. The priesthood as a tradition received from Jesus' Horite ancestors and it was a tradition which the Hebrews, and later the Jews, and then Christians preserved without change. The Church does not have the authority to change this tradition any more than it has authority to change the doctrine of Jesus' two natures, or the Eucharistic words of institution. This is the consensus of the Church Fathers, the Council of Nicaea (Canon 19), and the Council of Laodicea (Canon 11), as well as the consensus of the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II spoke ex cathedra on female ordination in 1994. Observing that the male priesthood had been "preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and clearly taught by the Magisterium in recent documents," he decreed that the Church has "no authority to confer priestly ordination on women."

In "The Veiling of the Virgins" Tertullian speaks of the sacerdotal life as a "male function," and St John Chrysostom wrote, "When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also” (On the Priesthood).

The Western tendency to innovate is not a new development. Speaking against this tendency, St. Basil the Great wrote, “The dogmas of the Fathers are held in contempt, the Apostolic traditions are disdained, the churches are subject to the novelties of innovators” (Letter 90, To the Most Holy Brethren and Bishops Found in the West).

This willful disregard of Apostolic traditions reached new heights in the Episcopal Church with the unprecedented and politically-motivated decisions to ordain women and non-celibate homosexuals. Again, St. Basil's words well describe the present condition of that body which can scarcely be called a "church." He wrote:

“Every man is a theologian; it does not matter that his soul is covered with more blemishes than can be counted.  The result is that these innovators find an abundance of men to join their factions. So ambitious, self-elected men divide the government of the churches among themselves, and reject the authority of the Holy Spirit.  The ordinances of the Gospel have been thrown into confusion everywhere for lack of discipline; the jostling for high positions is incredible, as every ambitious man tries to thrust himself into high office. The result of this lust for power is that wild anarchy prevails among the people; the exhortations of those in authority are rendered utterly void and unprofitable, since every man in his arrogant delusion thinks that it is more his business to give orders to others than to obey anyone himself” (On the Holy Spirit).

Feminist theologians have pressed the Church to ordain women, seeking to overthrow the wisdom of the Fathers and the Councils in their own brand of "liberation theology." They paint only one portrait; that of universal male oppression of women. They misrepresent the reality of women in the early church and in the Bible. Phoebe, Lydia, Priscilla were ministers in the early church, and more than 90% of the women named in the Bible are the wives and daughters of high ranking ruler-priests and they exercised considerable influences in their communities. Further, in the Eastern Orthodox Church women are highly revered and at least half the icons in a given church are of women saints, martyrs, and a few women who are regarded as "equal to the Apostles," such as Photini (the Woman at the Well), and a central place is given to the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is venerated, as she was by early Christians. Feminists theologians would overthrow any tradition which they regard as misogynistic to advance their agenda. For such as these, St. John has these stern words: “The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavor to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.” (On the Priesthood)  A review of the past 30 years of the Episcopal Church's history makes it fairly easy to identify who the "others" are.

Rediscovering Anglican Identity

It is no wonder that Anglicans today are suffering an identity crisis. Few issues make that clearer than the debate over women priests. I was glad to hear of Anglican Archbishop Robert Duncan's initiative to study the question of women priests, and ask readers to pray for and support that committee under Bishop David Hicks.

Many consider this a step backward, but it is the most progressive move any Anglican leader has taken since the Anglican Communion split over the consecration of gay activist Gene Robinson and the apostate presidency of Kathryn J. Schori.

Meanwhile, the Church of England continues to be torn by the question of women bishops.Those interested, should read this briefing by members of the Conservative Evangelical and Catholic groups in the general Synod of the Church of England: Women Bishops Legislation: Not Fit For Purpose

The new Archbishop of Canterbury favors women bishops, which does not bode well for Tradition-honoring, Biblical Anglicans.

The question of women priests continues to divide Anglicans and remains a significant barrier to ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics. Putting off a definitive study of this question only delays the inevitably clash that is coming within Anglicanism.

Having been a priest in the Episcopal Church for 15 years, this is a subject about which I have rather strong feelings.  Here are some of my thoughts.

Women who now serve as priests must be granted continued service, but their ministries should be directed toward preaching, teaching and pastoral ministry, especially among women and children.

There should be an immediate moratorium on the ordination of women as priests.

Women should be ordained as preachers, teachers, theologians and pastors, but not as priests.

Women should not serve in liturgical roles, except as cantors and lectors.

Only males should serve at the altar during Divine Liturgy.

Anglicans must restore the male nature of the Priesthood, which is the Priesthood of the God-Man Jesus Christ.

Anglicans must recover the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by which Christians are reminded of God's plan of salvation through the faithfulness of the Woman.


Related reading: More Thoughts on the Priesthood; Abraham's Habiru Ancestors; What is Lost When Women Serve as Priests; What is a Priest?; God as Male Priest; Growing Consensus that Women Priests Must be Addressed; Impressions of North American Anglicanism

Want Your Church to Grow? Preach Jesus Christ!

This recent conversation between Kevin Kallsen and George Conger speaks volumes, and not just for Anglicans.

Recovering the African Background of Genesis

Modupe Oduyoye 

Alice C. Linsley

Modupe Oduyoye is a Nigerian philologist whose book Sons of Gods and the Daughters of Men: An Afro-Asiatic Interpretation of Genesis 1-11 makes connections between the book of Genesis and African names, places, narratives and religious practices. The book was published in 1984 by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York.

In his book, Dr. Oduyoye notes the connection between Adamu Orisa (of Lagos State) and the Hebrew r’ison Adam. He notes that Hebrew Qayin (Kain/Cain) and the Arabic word for smith qayn are cognates. This relates to the biblical Kenites who were metalworkers and descendants of Cain. Oduyoye notes that these words are related to the Yoruba Ogun and Fon Gun, both referring to the “patron saint of smiths.”

Other cognates include Ebira Egene (the metalworker caste) and Hamn Kuno (who invented iron smelting). This may connect Kain to the city of Kano, which is north of the ancient complex at Nok, the place to which Kain likely "wandered" after he was sent away, and where he married a daughter of the ruler of Nok. Oduyoye notes that the Hebrew Nod נוד and Nok נוך are almost identical.

Oduyoye’s book was a response to the 1969 publication "Biblical Revelations and African Beliefs," a report of the first consultation of African theologians held in Ibadan in 1966. Oduyoye is a member of the Anglican Church and has served as a Bible teacher, a seminary professor, and the literature secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria.

Dr. Oduyoye studied English, Latin and History at University College, Ibadan, Nigeria, before theological studies at Yale Divinity School. He also studied Comparative Semitic Linguistics at Ann Arbor and Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics at London University Extra-Mural Dept. He is the author of "Words and Meaning in Yoruba Religion" and "The Vocabulary of Yoruba Religious Discourse" (1972).

Oduyoye is a humble man.  He has acknowledged his debt to Archdeacon Olumide Lucas who taught his father. Lucas was appointed Vicar of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Breadfruit, Lagos in 1936. Oduyoye sought Lucas' advice while writing "The Sons of Gods and the Daughters of Men."

Acknowledging his debt to earlier pioneers, Oduyoye wrote, "The thoughtful restudy of past scholarship is not criticism for the sake of criticism, but an attempt to elucidate the principles involved in the discovery of truth… in doing this, however, it is right that we express our gratitude and respect to those whose work is being used and restudied, and, without whose pioneering zeal and daring, the present evaluation will not have been attempted."


Oduyoye Challenged Seminarians

In August 1979, Dr. Oduyoye was asked to lead a Bible study by the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Odogbolu (Ogun State). The Rt. Rev. I.B.O. Akintemi asked him to teach seminarians. This marked the beginning of serious exploration into the linguistic intricacies of Genesis 1-11.

Oduyoye asked the seminarians why the Hebrew language uses the plural suffix (-iym) for God in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 6:1 when the Hebrew religion is anti-polytheistic. In the beginning eloh-iym (the gods) created the heavens and the earth. Why the plural form? Is this the Old Testament counterpart of the Baptism of Jesus in which the Trinity is manifested?

In Genesis 6:1, who are the sons of the Gods? Some say they are the nephilim, others say angels, and still others argue for the Israelites. The clue to understanding Genesis 6 is the word gibbor-iym (powerful ones). This passage is speaking about ancient Horite rulers, the "sons of the gods" or deified kings. This is a common theme in Africa, especially among the Buganda of Uganda, the Yoruba, and the ancient Egyptians.

Oduyoye says, “The sons and daughters of Naa Nyamo (“Father God”) are known to us as jemawoji, 'the gods of the world.' They are powerful and intelligent beings who walk about the world, but they have their own abodes in the seas, lagoons, mountains and other natural objects. Having been delegated by Naa nyamo to be his vicegerents, they are in active contact with the world of nature in man.”

In other words, the Genesis text reveals a henotheistic worldview, typical of the oldest tribal societies. Henotheism is the view that there is a single supreme Creator who is served by lesser assisting powers (baals). God alone is worshiped, but the lesser powers are venerated as good since they are not free to defy the Creator. These are the messengers (angels) of God.

The idea of fallen angels rests on the assumption that the word nephilim is the masculine plural participle of Hebrew naphal, meaning to fall, but this likely reflects the Jewish tendency to disdain the powerful rulers of their past. In the Book of Daniel the Aramaic term used to denote angels is `îrîn (watchers). Each is also called `îr weqadîsh (watcher and holy one). "Watcher" implies that angels act as God's sentinels, as did the angels appointed to guard the entrance to Eden.

Oduyoye wanted the seminarians to dig into the text because they needed to understand its cultural context, a context suggested by the etymology. He explained, “Christian preaching certainly needs a stronger pillar to lean upon than a basis of obscurantism.”

In seeking to understand Genesis 1-11, Oduyoye drew from many of the Afro-Asiatic languages and encouraged his students to consider their own African dialects and folklore. Having considerable acquaintance with many languages, Oduyoye's vantage point enabled him to ask questions that European and Anglo Bible scholars were not asking. He also questions many of the long-accepted interpretations of Jewish scholars.


Connecting the Linguistic Dots

One of the most significant contributions of Dr. Oduyoye has been to demonstrate common roots in Yoruba, Ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabic and Hausa. European and Anglo linguists already acknowledged a relationship between Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, Ugaritic, but it took this Nigerian philologist to demonstrate a clear connection to African languages like Tiv, Efik, Yoruba, Ibibio, Igbo, Fon, and Twi.

Oduyoye pointed out that Igbo dibia (medicine man) is cognate with the Arabic tibia (doctor) and that the Yoruba ajo is cognate with the Hebrew haj and the Arabic hajj. He notes also that the word ha-rison-iym (ancestors) in Psalm 79.8 is related to the Ijebu lisa (first in rank), to the igbo olise (God as in Olisemeka), to the Arabic ras, the Aramiac resh, the Akkadian rishu and the Yoruba orisha.

Oduyoye noted that the Arabic word harem and the Hebrew heremboth convey the idea of something set apart as sacred. Oduyoye explains that the /h/ is missing in Yoruba because “Yoruba nouns generally do not begin with an /h/ or any h-type sound.” This is more characteristic of the Afro-Arabian languages.

Oduyoye notes that confused in Hebrew is balal, but the Genesis writers use babel (b-b-l). Oduyoye explains that the writer of Genesis is basing etymology on a single leg of sound similarity without any consideration for the other leg. Hebrew balal means mingle, mix, confuse, confound and is cognate with Chichewa balala-balala which means to scatter or disperse. Oduyoye says, "Here, etymology has two legs to stand upon. Phonology and semantics."

“Babel is the name of the Babylonian capital whose only gate was memorably designed with religious motiffs. It came to be known by the Babylonians as baab ilu, "the gate of God." Babylon was very powerful and very ambitious. The Jews therefore saw the ruins of its ziggurats as divine punishment.

Oduyoye argues that at some point the historical becomes mixed with a redactor's agenda. He writes, “The etymology of Genesis 1-11 are based on fancy, not fact. They serve the purpose of mythology, not that of linguistics or philology.”

Oduyoye goes on to say, “The truth is that the story is one of many told by the Hebrews to ridicule nations against whom they harbor a grudge.” The Jews labeled their Canaanite kinsmen “idolaters” which justified their attempts to annihilate them in the name of Yahweh. They labeled their Moabite kinsmen as an incestuous race. They suggested that God destroyed all the other peoples of the earth in a catastrophic flood, save Noah and his family.

Oduyoye notes the relationship between the Yoruba Lamurudu (N-m-d / l-m-d) and the name Nimrod. He says, “Given this anterior greatness of the Kushite Nimrod, the first gibbor, the writers of Genesis did with Nimrod what they did with Nebuchadnezzar. For no reason other than his greatness, they stated that Nimrod’s greatness was offensive to God.”


Related reading: Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?; Who Were the Nephilim?; The Nilotic Substrata of Genesis 1; Kain's Princess Bride; Nimrod was a Kushite Ruler; Was the Land of Nod Enoch's Territory?; Ancient African Astronomers; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; African Religion Predates Hinduism

Anglicanism and Spiritualism

Alice C. Linsley



Spiritualism (also called "Spiritism") seeks to connect the living and the dead through practices such as automatic writing and séances. The central belief is that the spirits of the dead reside in the spirit world and have the ability to communicate with the living through the agency of mediums. 

Spiritualism reached its peak growth in membership between the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in England and the United States.  By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe. It was promoted by such popular figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote a two volume "History of Spiritualism." Doyle was President of the London Spiritualist Alliance and President of the British College of Psychic Science.

In America Harry Houdini set out to debunk several acclaimed mediums in the 1920s. His debunking exploits were chronicled in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits. He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural powers, but the prize was never collected. Houdini debunked the mediums George Valentine and Mina Crandon. His activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Unfortunately, Houdini's wife Bess lent popularity to spiritualism by attempting to contact her dead husband every Halloween for ten years. Before Houdini died, he and his wife agreed that if Houdini found it possible to communicate after death, he would communicate the message "Rosabelle believe." This was a secret code they agreed to use. It was reported that Bess had a contact with her dead husband through the medium Arthur Ford in 1929, but Bess later claimed the incident had been faked.

In September 1967, Episcopal Bishop James Albert Pike participated in a televised séance with Arthur Ford, a Disciples of Christ minister. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side. Today a number of American mediums have association with the Episcopal Church. Margaret Duke and Psychic Joanna were both raised in the Episcopal Church. The Philadelphia Medium and Psychic Development Group meets on Sundays at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Spiritualism had early activist tendencies.  Since many of the leading spiritualists were females who felt resistance to women speaking in public, they also championed women's rights. These included Sarah and Angelina Grimke (sisters) and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Spiritualist speakers Amelia Colby Luther, Cora Richmond, Moses and Mattie Hull, and Wallace Hibbits spoke against slavery. Many of these were associated with Camp Chesterfield in Indiana.



Spiritualism and Anglicanism

In April 2002, Richard J. Mammana, Jr.'s review of Rene Kollar's book Searching for Raymond: Anglicanism, Spiritualism, and Bereavement Between the Two World Wars appeared in Touchstone Magazine. Because the English Reformers largely condemned any form of Prayer for the dead due to abuses in the Roman Church, the age old practice (still observed in the eastern churches) was mostly lost. This led to a pastoral crisis during the great wars when so many lost their lives. Mammana sets the stage for the review with this explanation:

Despite the heroic actions of dedicated priests in the trenches, a spiritual vacuum haunted many of the men who returned from the Great War. This vacuum likewise haunted the homes whose hearths they left empty when they died “over there.” Into this void stepped a series of religious fads, loosely based, as all heresies are, on some aspects of the Christian faith bent out of shape. Prominent laymen—among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—promoted the idea that spiritualism and Christianity were not by any means at odds, but rather were complementary and even essential to one another. Hungry audiences devoured the deception, and clergymen weak in their own understanding of Christian doctrine willingly adopted the relation as well.

The first Lambeth Conference after the Great War addressed itself in earnest to the challenges raised by “Some Movements Outside the Church,” including spiritualism, Christian Science, and Theosophy. This conference, the same one that condemned artificial methods of birth control, said that these movements “are clearly shewn to involve serious error” when “tried by the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Cross.” It “urge[d] strongly that a larger place should be given in the teaching of the Church to the explanation of the true grounds of Christian belief in eternal life, and in immortality, and of the true content of belief in the Communion of Saints as involving real fellowship with the departed through the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Read the full review here.)

Archbishop William Cosmo Gordon Lang established a committee in 1937 “to discuss the relationship, if any, between spiritualism and the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church.” As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication of 1936, Archbishop Lang was faced with crisis upon crisis, not the least of which was the popularity of spiritualism. Although Archbishop Lang took a strong moral tone toward the failure of duty of Edward VIII in abdicating the throne, he reopened the question of spiritualism by forming the committee. One of the committee members was Evelyn Underhill, who later withdrew, stating that she was “very strongly opposed to spiritualism... especially to any tendency on the part of the Church to recognize or encourage it.”

The committee delivered its report in 1939, but its findings were not made public until 1979. A similar delay took place with the 1922 publication "Doctrine in the Church of England" which was not published until 1938. As Mammana notes, "The “Conclusions of the Majority” reveal a shocking discovery of inherent value in spiritualist practices. One paragraph merits quotation without comment:

It is often held that the practice of Spiritualism is dangerous to the mental balance, as well as to the spiritual condition, of those who take part in it, and it is clearly true that there are cases where it has become obsessional in character. But it is very difficult to judge in these cases whether the uncritical and unwise type of temperament which does undoubtedly show itself in certain spiritualists is a result or a cause of their addiction to these practices. Psychologically it is probable that persons in a condition of mental disturbance, or lack of balance, would very naturally use the obvious opportunities afforded by Spiritualism as a means of expressing the repressed emotions which have caused their disorder. This indeed is true of Christianity itself, which frequently becomes an outlet, not only for cranks, but for persons who are definitely of unstable mentality.

The committee closed with the recommendation of a sort of ecumenism between the Church of England and the spiritualist movement: “It is in our opinion important that representatives of the Church should keep in touch with groups of intelligent persons who believe in Spiritualism.”


Related reading: The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism; The Tradegy of James Pike; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? by Dr. William G. Witt

The Episcopal Church Circus

Alice C. Linsley

I use the word "circus" as one who served in Episcopal orders for 18 years. I left on the Sunday Gene Robinson was consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church (TEC). Since then TEC's downward spiral into the ridiculous has gained velocity. The Episcopal flock is led by clowns!

The Church of England approved women bishops in July 2014 and those who hold to the catholic faith in that body will have to lump it. The provision to accommodate them will never hold. The Church of England learned nothing from the debacle of the The Episcopal Church. Some clergy of the Church of England will migrate to the Roman Ordinariate or to the Free Church of England.

The Episcopal Church pushed women to be priests as part of the diversity agenda. I personally experienced that pressure. I sought to serve the Church, and though my gifts indicate that I should have been encouraged to pursue Theology or Church History as an academic, I was told that I should be a priest. Bishop Lyman Ogilby, who at first resisted the innovation, came to embrace it. This was the message coming across loud and clear in the Diocese of Pennsylvania in the 1980's. This Diocese delivered to the Anglican world bishops Barbara Harris, Geralyn Wolf, Mary Glasspool, Frank Griswold, and Charles Bennison.

Later there were more dubious ordinations in TEC, including a Muslim woman (who was later defrocked by Geralyn Wolf) and two Wiccans (also later defrocked). As far as I know, no partnered homosexuals have been defrocked, so one wonders about the nature of TEC's diversity. Diversity and equality have become terms of tyranny for many in the Anglican Communion. These high-sounding ideals have been employed to break catholic orders and to forever change the Church. Louie Crew's "Changing the Church" tells the sordid history. Now there remains but one impediment to ordination in TEC: refusal to accept this new religion. The descent down the slippery slope gains speed. Non-celibate homosexuals, transgender, bisexual, pedophile... anyone can be a "priest" in TEC if they bow to the circus master.

“When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.” – St. John Chrysostom

“The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.” – St. John Chrysostom

Related reading: The TEC Clergy Hit List Grows Daily; Women Priests by E.L. Mascall; What is Lost When Women Serve as Priests?; C.S. Lewis on "Priestesses in the Church"; Why Women Were Never Priests; God as Male Priest; What is a Priest?;  Women Priests: History and Theology by Patrick Henry Reardon

The Tragedy of James Pike

Alice C. Linsley


Has occult involvement by Anglicans contributed to the spiritual decay of the Episcopal Church? That question came up in response to "The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism."

Many bishops have been lax in upholding the doctrine and discipline of the Church and this has turned Anglicanism into a schismatic brand of modernist Christianity. In this tragedy, the Episcopal Church bears a large portion of the shame, beginning at least as early as James Albert Pike.

Pike was charged with heresy three times, though the charges were dropped. Apparently, it was politics as usual in the Episcopal House of Bishops. In October 1966, he was formally censured by his fellow Bishops. This was the year his son James Jr. committed suicide.

Pike was never deposed by the House of Bishops though he rejected the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, and the doctrine of Hell.  He also supported the ordination of women and the acceptance of homosex. In December 1960, Pike had an essay published in Look in which he argued that the Church was no longer relevant for contemporary life.  He became a severe critic of the Church, her Tradition and the Bible.

Pike met the Christian apologist Elton Trueblood at a conference in Alaska and there was correspondance between the men in 1955. Trueblood taught Philosophy at Earlham College and mentions Pike's apostacy in his book The Company of the Committed.

James Albert Pike

Pike's Demise

In August 1969 Bishop James Pike and his third wife who he married in 1967, went to Israel to gather material for a book Pike was writing. The book was to present Pike's version of the origins of Christianity. On September 2nd they set out in a rented car for the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by the devil. After passing Herodion, Pike turned off on an unpaved track which he believed led north to Jericho. In fact, he was at the beginning of Wadi Mashash, leading east towards the Dead Sea. Soon the unpaved road ended where it had been washed out by flash floods. The Pikes tried to turn around, but the rear wheels of the car dropped into a deep rut. They couldn’t free the car and didn’t know how to use the jack. The Pikes abandoned the car after trying unsuccessfully to get it out of the rut. Then they walked for two hours until Bishop Pike was too exhausted to go on. They found a relatively flat rock under a bit of an overhang that gave them some shade. As the sun was setting, Diane Pike left her husband and continued walking. After some ten hours of climbing steep canyons in the moonlight, she stumbled onto the road being built between Ein Gedi and Ein Fashha. A security guard found her and she was taken to police authorities in Bethlehem. When they returned to the place where Diane had left her husband, they found the map that Diane had left with her husband but no clue as to where he had gone. Pike's Apostacy Pike was raised as a Roman Catholic and became an agnostic while attending the University of Santa Clara. After earning his Law degree, he worked in Washington D.C. After WWII, Pike and his second wife, Esther Yanovsky, joined the Episcopal Church.  He had met Esther while she was attending his law class at George Washington. He entered the Virginia Theological Seminary and then the Union Theological seminary. He was ordained in 1946, though he never renounced his agnosticism. In 1952 he became Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he used the pulpit to proclaim social reform. In 1958, following the death of Bishop Karl Morgan Block, Pike was consecrated the fifth Bishop of California.  Though he was originally from Oklahoma, Pike was never comfortable with the values of America's heartland.  He lived most of his adult life in the urban centers of the East and West and was clearly out of touch with the average Episcopalian. Pike's third marriage was to a woman about half his age.  He was 56 and she was 31. Diane Kennedy Pike was the executive director of a foundation that conducted research into life after death and paranormal experiences.  James and Diane collaborated on the book, "The Other Side: An Account of My Experience with Psychic Phenomena." The book tells of  Pike's dabbling in necromancy in an effort to establish contact with his son, James Jr., who committed suicide in a New York hotel in 1966. James Jr. was Pike's son by Esther Yanovsky. After three days of temperatures above 100 degrees, the hunt for Bishop Pike was called off. At a news conference, Mrs. Pike reported that the seer who had put her husband in contact with the spirit of his son had had a vision of him alive in a cave near the place Diane had left him. Off duty army scouts and local Beduoin searched for him, but his body was not found. On September 7th, James Pike's body was found. Pike was climbing a steep ascent in Wadi Mashash when he slipped and fell to his death.  He was buried in St. Peter's cemetery in Jaffa under a tamarisk tree.  Before his death in 1969, Pike announced that he and Diane were ending their affliation with the Episcopal Church and with all forms of organized religion.

Related reading: The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism; The Modernist-Traditionalist Divide in Anglicanism; Impressions of the New American Anglicanism; Anglicanism and Spiritualism; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? A Followup by William G. Witt