This paper examines the way episcopal consecrations have been conducted since the first woman was consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England in 2015. It scrutinises the ‘mission creep’ of the Five Guiding Principles as they have been used to support increasing segregation in sacramental arrangements in the consecration of bishops. The paper argues that the principle of ‘mutual flourishing’ has come to be privileged over the rest, despite the House of Bishops’ Declaration clear injunction that all Five ‘need to be read one with the other and held together in tension, rather than being applied selectively’. It traces ways they have been invoked that were never envisioned by many who supported them as part of the ‘package’ for the passage of the Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure in 2014. In the end, the paper calls for transparency and theological scrutiny of their interpretation and application – it does not call for their abolition.
This essay explores the origin of impaired communion through episcopal division within the Church of England. It considers the background to the Act of Synod of 1993 and asks why such a major innovation was so widely accepted, and why it was barely challenged in subsequent years.
Women priests in the Church of England are subject to discrimination that is legitimised and justified through gendered theologies. Through the lens of Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, this article explores the harms perpetrated as women are constructed as differently human by both the Church’s structure and by the theological discourses that define the social and the relational. Whilst the notion of misrecognition suggests collusion, the argument concludes that women priests navigate their recognition of symbolic violence and the silencing mechanisms in place in different ways. The conclusion suggests that misrecognition needs to be reinterpreted and developed with more nuance to account for the agency of women priests, and that gendered theology should be treated as discourse through which symbolic violence is perpetrated to maintain masculine dominance.
In spite of many decades of campaigning, women continue to face discrimination and prejudice in both Church and society. Equality of women and men has not yet been achieved, even in the Church of England, which includes women in all three of its historic orders. At the heart of the ongoing struggle is bad theology based on the misinterpretation of various Biblical texts in the light of patriarchal beliefs and attitudes about women and sexuality. Until and unless the effects of patriarchy are recognised and exposed as being incompatible with Christianity, both women and men will continue to suffer, and we will not know how true equality might transform our faith and our lives.
In this article I explore the possibility that the eucharist might offer something of a place of safety for those who have experienced childbirth trauma, a space where trauma can begin to be incorporated or traversed. I begin by looking at trauma acquired through childbirth, arguing that it can be considered as a particular form of trauma, which might make its incorporation more difficult, especially in respect to finding a position of safety with which to begin this work. I then turn to the eucharist, using the work of Catherine Keller and Gordon Lathrop, particularly his concept of the eighth day, to reflect upon time, the eucharist and trauma. I conclude this article with an autoethnographic vignette, my own experiences with birth trauma and the expansive space of the eucharist.
This article offers a critical-constructive intervention into current theological engagements with Christianity’s entanglement in colonialism. While much scholarship has critically examined theology’s historical complicity in empire, it often begins from normative assumptions of theology’s inherent liberative nature, framing colonial expressions as distortions of an ‘authentic’ Christianity. In contrast, this article argues for a theological methodology that takes Christianity’s political ambiguity as a starting point for theological construction. Drawing on postcolonial theory, it proposes a reorientation of theological reflection that resists claims to theological innocence (i.e. the presumed moral purity or redemptive essence of Christianity) and instead develops constructive trajectories rooted in theology’s historical entanglement with power.
The article deploys some elements of New Feminist Materialism (NFM) to illuminate better the real presence of Christ in the eucharist. The elements are: distributive agency; vibrant matter; and networks and meshworks. The claim is made that they might prompt us to an enhanced appreciation of eucharistic worship.
Story is a powerful feature of human life. As well as being theologically and ethically significant, it is fundamental to the liturgy. The eucharist is a narrative, grounded in the Bible and presented through word and action, of the preparation for Christ’s coming and of Christ’s birth, ministry, passion, death, resurrection and ascension. Worshippers participate in this narrative by taking the place of different characters in it and by sharing in the events that are presented. In so doing, they may become more deeply incorporated into the word, person and work of Christ.
This paper examines the Church of England’s internal conflict over the ordination of women and the role of the Five Guiding Principles. It highlights the theological incoherence of fully affirming women’s priestly ordination while simultaneously accommodating those who reject it. This compromise, rooted in the 1993 Act of Synod, effectively created two parallel churches. The paper traces how parliamentary pressure, especially from the Ecclesiastical Committee, forced the Church into granting structural concessions, most importantly Provincial Episcopal Visitors, that undermined sacramental unity. Many MPs prioritised protecting dissenters over promoting gender equality, which resulted in permanent division. This is briefly contrasted with the 2014 women bishops’ legislation, where Parliament was much clearer in its demand for full equality. It concludes by suggesting the Church’s current division over women’s ministry stems from decisions made in 1993, reflecting panicked compromises rather than coherent ecclesiology.
This article questions how far, in the process of the decolonisation of mission, have women been adequately represented in mission organisations. Historically, the mission field could be a place of empowerment for some women and the need for women on missional and ecumenical boards was highlighted from the 1970s into the World Council of Churches (WCC)’s Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, 1988 to 1998. Yet today, organisations still struggle to reach adequate representation of women in their boards, gatherings or programmes, and further, women are scarcely to be found in senior paid management in missional or ecumenical organisations. Has the pursuit to decolonialise once again pushed women aside?
This article draws attention to the experiences of female economic migrants from the Global South. It argues for re-imagining solidarity with trafficked and migrant women workers by undoing epistemic injustice, listening to and learning from the perspective and standpoint of women in the margins of society, academia and theological processes. It contends that our solidarity will be incomplete unless we listen to women’s voices and learn from their knowledge that comes from their lived experiences. Just solidarity entails finding alternative solutions for long-term sustainable social and economic justice together with and for poor and marginalised communities specifically in the Global South.
Solidarity is an essential dimension to the thinking and practice of contemporary mission. Grounded in Catholic social teaching, this article argues for the further development of solidarity as a core missiological commitment, which creates the conditions for a justice-focused Christian discipleship faithful to the egalitarian vision of the New Testament. Such an approach to mission demands a rigorously global understanding of political theology alongside deepening practices of epistemic humility and ethnographically informed empathy. It is from such missional commitments that genuine transformation, personal and communal, emerges.
Can interreligious solidarity help Christians engage with the pressing challenges of our times? Focusing on the ecumenical document Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond (WCC and PCID), this essay argues that interreligious solidarity might hold in it the promise for both the transformation our wounded world and the transformation of the method and practice of interreligious dialogue itself.
When Christians think about the mission and ministry of Christ, visions of charity and service tend to float to the surface. ‘Good news to the poor’ (Matt 11:5; Luke 4:18) appears to be a matter of service to the poor, feeding them, clothing them, and perhaps providing housing for them. Centuries of Christian mission have been informed by this mentality as well. Commonly identified next steps after charity, influenced by other visions of the ministry of Christ, include advocacy and capacity building. This article argues not only that some of these approaches are more problematic than is often realised, but that there are other, more profound, ways to understand the mission and ministry of Christ and more appropriate ways to live a Christ-like life. The notion of deep solidarity opens new horizons as it aims at reshaping relationships not only among human beings, but also with the divine.
A search for the sacred confronts us with the human desecration of our common home. We share alienation from one another and nature but a way to reclaim our sense of home can begin with the unity of our body, mind and spirit. The easy movements of bioenergetics can enliven our awareness of being at home in ourselves. The Greek for home, oikos , is a root word for three key perspectives: ecology, ecumenical and economics. The Passion story relies on the importance of ‘his Father’s House’. The Gospel of Jesus Green is to trust the multilevel truths of home can offer reconciliation of human systems and activities with the limits of nature. Science and Christian faith agree on how to flourish.
