Maggi Dawn is a Cambridge based theologian, scholar, College fellow and author. She’s the author of a widely read blog in the U.K. She’s posted a synopsis of the events of this past week following the news of the experience of the Presiding Bishop during her visit to Southwark Cathedral.
She ends her reprisal of the week’s events with this news of the way women in the United Kingdom have been reacting:
“My own mailbox this week has had a stream of comments from women who have just been, or are about to be, ordained as priests or deacons. They are disappointed and dismayed as everyone else who sees this whole charade as a massive PR blunder. But there is a personal element too. It swings straight back at them: with one hand the Church has welcomed their giving up of their time, their careers and their economic security in order to serve, while with the other hand, in the very month that they take their orders, it has smacked them down again. You can serve, the Church seems to say, but never dare to forget you are second class citizens.
At one level this whole affair has been a lot of nonsense – as the Presiding Bishop herself said, ‘It is bizarre; it is beyond bizarre‘. But I don’t mind admitting that the onslaught of mockery from those outside the church and disappointment from inside has had me seriously considering hanging up my own cassock.”
Read the full post here.
Her sentiments seem to be a significant change from her first post regarding the news:
Is it true? It’s well known in Church circles that one of the current pastimes when there isn’t any news is baiting the ABC, whose job is a poisoned chalice in some ways – it’s impossible to find a middle way, so someone will deride him whatever he does. So there may well be an element of exaggeration or a vital missing piece in the story….
[…]But if it is true (and it’s clear, though regrettable, that the story rings immediately true to Episcopalians in the USA)
[…]Me, I shall avoid getting over excited until there is a statement, if one is needed, from Lambeth and from TEC. I suspect, especially given that the Presiding Bishop’s comments quoted above were typical of her gracious and understated style, that this event is ten percent genuine gaffe and ninety percent media kerfuffle.