Episcopalians elect a Female bishop

I’ve been exploring an awful lot of Blogs lately. The past couple of days they have been Catholic Blogs. Many of them are talking about the Episcopalians electing a female bishop. Most of the blog writers are negative towards this. I am struggling.

I am glad to be living in the era that I do. As a female I can have a choice as to how I lead my life. I am fortunate enough to be able to have everything I want. I have a career I thoroughly enjoy. I have a family. I have a wonderful husband who picks up the parenting slack I leave behind as I go to work.

The Church views Motherhood as sacred. The Mother nurtures and teaches the children. (yes, but a Father can do this too!). A mother traditionally “keeps the home fires burning” so to speak. They have traditionally managed the home while the father goes off and earns the living/food, etc. Ok Fine. My husband is almost as good at this as I am. Since I started my job with the long commute, he has done a good job of making sure the boys are fed and gotten to their baseball games. He has even kept the kitchen clean.

Tradition. The Catholic Church bases their doctrine on the Bible as well as Tradition. Is there a difference between tradition and culture? The ancient Hebrew culture, life was hard. The division of duties between the male (work in the fields, catch the fish, fight the wars) and female (bear, feed, teach and nurture the children, manage the household, provide the husband with nourishment) was efficient since the climate was so harsh and “work” was back-breaking. Now-a-days there are office jobs where an expectant Mom can work and not endanger her pregnancy.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the world needs Stay at home Moms. I think Mom’s who work outside the home do some important jobs. I don’t think I’d make a very good stay at home Mom in the 21st century. I would be busy keeping myself occupied that I’d lose track of time and ignore my kids. Since I am away from home, I can dedicate time to spending with my boys.

I understand that the Catholic Church bases their policy that Women are not ordained based on the Tradition of the Church. Women have never been priests. Are we sure of that? Were there not some stories about women priest in the early church? Are there documents that were excluded from the body of faith because they did support the goals of the Church? I believe so. I don’t believe it was malicious; it just best met the culture. I mean something must have been done right because of the phenomenal growth of the Church.

I find it interesting that Women tend to be the business managers of most parishes these days. How many pastoral associates are Women? My parish has two.

So where do I stand? I support the Church’s current stand because I believe that the Church needs to convince some cultures that women are not possessions. The Church needs to maintain world-wide appeal. And I pray for the wisdom and understanding to accept the stance joyfully instead of sadly or for the Holy Spirit to inspire a change.