What is in Kelvin's Head?

Guest Post: At Home Among the Dissenters – John McLuckie

02/10/2012

The Rev John McLuckie is about to return to Scotland following several years working in England. In this guest post he reflects on his experience of the Church of England. Do feel free to respond to what John has written below in the comments and check out his blog at http://justluckie.typepad.com

On the weekend of the celebrations to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee, I decided that I wasn’t in the mood for the kind of civic religion I knew I would find in my local Church of England parish so I went to our local Quaker meeting instead. I enjoyed it so much that I have been going there regularly ever since.Â I enjoy the silence and the gently mystical instincts of Friends, but also their testimony to simplicity, equality and peacemaking.Â As an Anglican priest, this seems like a slightly irresponsible thing to do, but I think that this choice says a lot about how I perceive the differences between the context and ethos of the church in which I was ordained – the Scottish Episcopal Church – and the one I currently belong to – the Church of England.

In fact, I don’t work for the Church of England but for the NHS as a chaplain in a specialist cancer hospital.Â I recognise that this is a privileged position in at least two ways: firstly I feel privileged to work in a place where I can explore matters of the spirit with people who would not normally have anything to do with a church, including people of other world faiths; secondly, I am, in part, able to occupy this position by virtue of the privileged relationship with the state enjoyed by the Church of England.Â I have no doubt that this relationship is changing, but am not skilled in the arts of predicting the future so would not dare to hazard a guess as to how it will look in a generation’s time.Â What is clear to me is that the C of E takes its public role very seriously and I deeply respect the skill and intelligence with which so many of its members, lay and ordained, interact with society at all its levels, civic, cultural and communal.Â However, it is also clear to me that the C of E is not alone in this commitment, even if it does sometimes imagine that it is.Â The truth is that there is another story about the place of Christian faith in English life and culture and my sojourn with the Society of Friends gives a clue about it.
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church, England, John McLuckie, Scotland

10 responses to “It was 30 years ago today…”

Meg Rosenfeld

11/11/2022

Alas, I can’t remember exactly when it became possible for women to be come priests in the
Episcopal Church of the United States of America, but I remember very well the first ones in our parish church in Los Gatos, California and, later, in Santa Rosa. It was a very triumphant time!

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1. Sr Alison Joy Whybrow
  
  12/11/2022
  
  The Canon in the American Episcopal Church passed in 1976 and went into effect on January 1st 1977.
  Sr Alison Joy OSB
  
  Reply
  1. Mg Rosenfeld
    
    12/11/2022
    
    Thanks! I hope to remember those dates now.
    
    Reply
2. Tim Chesterton
  
  14/11/2022
  
  In Canada women began to be ordained as deacons in 1969 and as priests in 1976.
  
  Reply
Peggy Brewer

11/11/2022

Heartfelt testament concerning the importance/necessity of inclusion as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded!

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Bob King

12/11/2022

I remember the day so
well !
I was at Salisbury and Wells Theological College, preparing to leave to be Ordained in Hereford Cathedral, preparing for the closure of the College and praying with passion and fear that the vote in Synod would be YES 🙏🙏
All three things happened as we know, joy and sadness mingled down.

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Helen King

12/11/2022

Yes, all of this, especially “There were cruelties along the way. There was a great deal of abuse along the way”

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1. Anne
  
  18/11/2022
  
  And, sadly, there still is.
  
  Reply
John N Wall

12/11/2022

The first women ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church were the “Philadelphia Eleven,” ordained on July 29, 1974, by three bishops who claimed that “obedience to the Spirit” justified their action. After a second ordination of women, all their ordinations were deemed by the national church to be “irregular but valid.” As a previous correspondent noted, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church officially authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood, a decision that went into effect on the first of January in 1977.

Back to Glossary

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Keith Battarbee

13/11/2022

On the opposite side to the still continuing antipathies in some (diminishing) quarters to women priests : my wife, who is a priest, was driving today when we got stuck waiting our turn to join the main flow of cars. A driver in the main queue – eastern European, almost certainly – spotted my wife’s collar, crossed himself; and when we didn’t get the message, grinned broadly, crossed himself again, and waved us energetically into the traffic flow in front of him.

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