/24-7PressRelease.com/ - March 16, 2005 - First there was the uproar over ordaining female priests, now the arguments against the ordination of women Bishops grow daily and are usually supported by theologians using one translation of Biblical references concerning 'headship.' "Christ is the head of every man and the husband is the head of his wife and God is the head of Christ." 1 Cotinthians 11:13
The Most Reverend Archbishop Gary Beaver of The Interdenominational Church of the Holy Lands made an official statement on behalf of the Independent Old Catholic denomination in full support of women in all offices of the church " The gift of Calling and serving the church community is not and should not be a question of gender" Archbishop Gary goes on to state " Many have stated that there are political reasons supporting arguments against female Bishops and women in the church, which only goes to prove that we should worship God in our churches and not politics."
Many see that allowing women to become Priests and Bishops is a novelty within the Church in the last 50 years. Not only is it an historical novelty it is still confined to a fairly small proportion of Christian churches.
Christ made women's ordination possible when he revoked the Old Testament priesthood of Aaron and brought both men and women into a new convenant; into a new priesthood through baptism. "All of you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized in Christ, have clothed yourselves in Christ. Thus there is no longer Jew nor Greek, free nor slave, male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3,27-28.
The ordination to the priesthood is a fuller participation in baptism's sacrificial and prophetic gifts. Christ replaced a priesthood based on the sacred by a priesthood based on grace; a universal priesthood shared by all the baptized. This priesthood is given through the sacrament of baptism, and baptism is the same whether for a man or a woman.
Archbishop Gary Beaver has long rallied for women Bishops, and has been focusing on the relevant New Testament texts and their implications for the theology of the episcopate, in many cases totally refuting the references to Scripture used by those against women in senior clerical office.
Archbishop Gary raised the human rights issue of many churches continuing to discriminate against its own clergy, and asked how they can explain this in their mission.
The Independent Old Catholic denomination calls for all churches to consider a proposal to amend their canon law so that all references to gender are removed from the criteria for the selection of bishops.
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