C of E 'might think again' on women being priests
The archbishop of Canterbury has reopened the debate on women priests by suggesting the Anglican Church may have to review its position.
Speaking ahead of his first official audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome next week, Dr Rowan Williams indicated he remained a firm supporter of ordination of women priests.
But in an interview with The Catholic Herald, he said he could 'just about envisage a situation in which, over a very long period, the Anglican Church thought about it again'.
He said the debate on the issue had 'tested' his theological convictions.
Dr Williams said he did not think the reform had 'transformed or renewed the Church in spectacular ways', though neither had it 'corrupted or ruined' it.
During the wide-ranging interview with the Catholic weekly newspaper, he was asked about predictions that the Church was in its last throes.
'The Church of England as it now is no human power can save,' he said.
'At the same time, it is clear that the Anglican Church worldwide, as it has evolved, has got to find some new ways of relating and organising its life because we have depended a little bit too much on what you might call "gentlemen's agreements".
'As the Church becomes so much more diverse, then the old notion of a kind of spiritual version of the British Commonwealth becomes less plausible.'
Yesterday, Lambeth Palace played down the significance of his comments on women priests saying he had made it quite clear there could be 'no turning back' on women's ordination. But the fact that he appeared to open the door to even the possibility of a reconsideration will anger women clergy who believe their place in the Church should now be firmly assured.
Dr Williams, a liberal Anglo-Catholic, admitted that the divisions following the 1993 decisions by the General Synod to ordain women had tested his conviction that it was the right thing to do.
'So we did it because we thought it was right, knowing something of the price it would exact, but not, I think, knowing just how difficult it would be,' he said.
'Had we known how difficult it would be, would it have stopped us? I suspect not.
'And that sounds a bit blunt, but I think there was sufficient depth of theological conviction in the Church of England to feel that it would somehow be wrong and no real compliment to the Roman Catholic Church if we held back and said: "Well, you know, we won't hurt your feelings.'''
a. martin@dailymail.co.uk
'No human power'
