Just when you thought the Anglicans didn’t have any more surprises up their sleeve, here’s today’s news: a Church of England bishop has ordained his wife. You can read all about it here.
That would be Rt. Rev. Nigel McCullough and Rev. Mrs. McCullough in the photograph.
I wonder if they share clerical shirts.
That reminds me. I was ordained as an Anglican deacon twenty five years ago today. Despite my wisecracks about the Anglican Church, I actually love the old girl, and grieve for the sad, silly state she is in.
Well, that probably means she’s straight anyway.
Fr. Dwight,Anglicans always have more surprises up their sleeves. Granted, it’s more obvious on this side of the Atlantic—Chris Johnson of the Midwest Conservative Journal has gone so far as to state that every satire made of the Episcopal Church eventually comes true (usually, let me add, with shocking speed). But the same principle can be seen at work in the CofE.Peace,–Peter
By what method does any individual decide the Holy Spirit is leading them through any course of action? And what is the difference between it and this reckless daring under the Name of the Holy Spirit? Have some fear that Name. I read last week the Presbyterians are considering gay marriages. How then is the Church to remain the bulkward of the truth if it bends to every cultural trend?
I guess that it is one way of getting your wife to obey you but it does seem a little extreme!
I doubt he had much choice in the matter…”No darling, I don’t think you have a vocation to the priesthood… OUCH ! NOOOOO ! Don’t throw the frying pan…!”;-)
nepotism at its best?
Fr. L.,I’m glad the “bishop” is wearing a miter…it would have been difficult figuring out who was who! :)Terry
Um. Well. Even if you believe in women’s ordination……that’d be one creepy conflict of interest there. Priestly obedience. A bishop’s obligations to one’s priests. Sex. Favoritism. Nepotism.What happens if they divorce? What happens with their kids if they stay together? What the heck were they thinking?
Will their kids be bord “prisests”? Have C of E authorities looked into this?Most likely answer: no, b/c that would discriminate against married-gay priests.
Sorry, make that “born ‘priests'”
Am I missing something? In the first place, the Anglican church is off its rocker anyway, so where is the surprise? Second, if they ordain women, why not this woman? It doesn’t make it right, but it isn’t more wrong than their ordaining any other female. Third, if she’s going to be ordained, why shouldn’t her husband get to do it? Very likely he baptized his own children, and even married them, so I can’t see why he should not ordain his own wife. If he had a son entering the Anglican clergy, I suppose he’d have ordained him. In short, the silliness seems to me to arise from the Anglicanism and the female ordination, and not from this particular ordinand’s relation to the officiating bishop.