The Ever-Changing Traditions

There is gnashing of teeth in England today over the General Synod of the Anglican Church voting to reject the ordination of women bishops within the body of the English church.

Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, has stated that the Anglican Church, through this vote, has “lost a lot of credibility” with the general populice of Britain and the world. He feels that the Church of England is out of step with the sentiments of the wider world.

He is correct, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Shouldn’t the church, any church body, get its ruling structure from the God they claim to worship? What does He say in the rule book for Christians, namely the Holy Bible?

Firstly, it is obvious that when Jesus set up the leadership of the early church, He chose 12 Apostles all men. Apostle Paul, directed by the Holy Spirit, set up the early church leadership structure by appointing bishops in the churches and one of the qualifications was that they were to be the “husband of one wife.”

This is found in I Timothy Chapter 3, and also in Titus Chapter 1. These qualifications make it obvious the bishops were all men. Apostle Paul also stated specifically that in church government, women were not to exercise authority over the men as stated in I Timothy Chapter 2, Verse 12. This is not a putdown of women.

It is just the system or the order of authority that God ordained. In church government, Apostle Paul made it very plain in 1 Corinthians Chapter 11, Verse 3 that “the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.”

We are all under authority and the ultimate authority is God the Father. The church is not a democracy and to try to make it one is to destroy it, because it usurps God’s own authority and replaces it with the ever-changing traditions of men.

Richard Trigg, Villa Ridge