Book of Kells, Chi Rho folio, c. 800 · public domain

Christianity

Tradition·Founded 30 CE·est. ~2.4 billion worldwide

Judaism → Christianity → 11 branches

Branch
Community of Christianity

Women and ordination.

The Church of England ordained women priests in 1994 and bishops in 2014; most mainline Protestant churches did so earlier. Rome holds the question closed. The Orthodox churches are re-examining the ancient order of deaconesses, which existed and then stopped, and nobody quite agrees why.

How you joinOrdination — open to women in most mainline Protestant churches, closed to them in Catholicism, Orthodoxy and much of global evangelicalism
Who leadsThe argument runs on scripture, on the maleness of the apostles, and on the ancient female diaconate the Orthodox churches are currently re-examining
The unitThe clergy roll, and who may be on it
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Most mainline Protestant churches ordain women — Congregationalists from the nineteenth century, Lutherans and Methodists through the mid-twentieth, the Church of England to the priesthood in 1994 and the episcopate in 2014, with a legal settlement allowing parishes to refuse a woman's ministry. Rome holds the question closed: Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in 1994 declared the church has no authority to ordain women and that this is definitive, and the argument now runs on whether that judgment is itself reformable. The Orthodox churches ordain no women priests but had an order of deaconesses in antiquity, with an ordination rite inside the sanctuary, which simply stopped; the Patriarchate of Alexandria has begun restoring it, which makes the historical question live. Global evangelicalism is split, with complementarian and egalitarian camps that read the same Pauline passages in opposite directions. This is one of the two arguments — with sexuality — that is currently reorganising the denominations.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Bishops who ordain but do not rule. The Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) Go deeper →
Holi — the festival of color. Hinduism · rite Go deeper →
M Mahapajapati — the first nun. Buddhism · figure Meet them →
The fourfold sangha. Jainism Go deeper →
Every human bears the image of God. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
The farewell sermon. Islam · story Read it in full →

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