Thank you, Venerable and others. I’ve read your submissions.

As a clergyman who attended a theologically liberal Anglican seminary for three years in “Lotus land” Vancouver, BC in Canada, and ordained by the most liberal progressive Bishop in Canada at the time, I have heard all the points raised in favor of ordination of women and I can give you more as well but none of it is convincing because they are all anecdotal and theologically problematic.

There is a CLEAR biblical directive in 1 Timothy 2 that states that women should not be granted the ordained authority to teach and lead men in the Church of God.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

1 Timothy 2:12-15

It’s not our Church, it is HIS church and we are members so it has to be led his way. That is all we need. As HIS ministers we have an obligation to follow his command rather than our feelings or ideas. Every other arguement that Liberals and some evangelicals deploy to circumvent that truth, is an attempt to ignore the truth of Scripture and should be avoided like a plague.

It is important to refresh our minds constantly by reading Genesis 3 conversation between the serpent and Eve. All the serpent needed to do to change the course of human history was to raise concerns and suspicion about God’s CLEAR commandment by asking Eve if God “really, actually” said and meant what he commanded them because he wanted Eve to consider God’s command unfair and unreasonable.

Refusal to ordain women is not unfair or unreasonable. And Paul did not use a cultural or patriarchal reason, he used a theological one rooted in the creation and the Fall. Those two references- Creation and Fall- are deep theological foundations that the New Testament has not jettisoned. Redemption in the death and resurrection of Jesus did not change the headship of the husband over the wife according to Ephesians 5 and neither does it change the headship of the man in the Church of God. So it’s somewhat concerning to use the feminist argument of patriarchy to support disobedience to God’s word.

We can’t use experience of successful Christian women preachers either because that will lead us into dangerous territory. If every religous leadership that is considered “successful” by our human determination and experience of their success based on influence and numbers and growth and commitment of followers then we have no option to admit that Islam and the Mormon Church are of God because they are “successful”. People have claimed that their lives have been blessed by their experience of being ministered to by Islamic and Mormon teachers. So we must be cautious of basing doctrine our spiritual experiences of success and growth.

We have a passage in 1 Timothy 2 that is clear and biblical precision and faithfulness (not excluding the example ofJesus and the Apostles in the apostolic era) require that we must use that clear passage to evaluate the rest of the biblical passages and narratives on the subject. We must use that passage to judge subsequent deviations in the history of the Church on this matter.

Sadly the history of the Church is a cyclical history of truth and heresy; and deformation and reformation. So this work of theological combat for the preservation of God’s work will continue till the second Advent of Christ. Each us must choose the side where we will stand in this history.

I believe that it was and is still wrong for Christians to disregard the clear teaching of Scripture, even if it is one verse, on this issue of WO. Trying to circumvent 1Tim 2 is a Genesis 3 serpentine methodology that is dangerous for us all.

We need to teach our churches on other important roles of women in the church. That’s more important than their ordination.

Thank you all for engaging this conversation. I think it is good and fine to do this for academic purposes. We will not ordain women in our diocese in line with Scripture, Anglican tradition, and our Diocesan Canons and Constitution.