Ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among many major religious groups in the present time. The quotes here are about ordination in themodern era usually defined as from about the 18th century to the present. Quotes about the ordination of women will use words in relation to women such as ordination, appointment, consecration to a religious office. The words for a religious office will differ between religions such as deacon, priest, bishop, pastor, elder, minister in the Christian faith, bhikkhuni or master in some branches of Buddhism, rabbi in Judaism.
A more in-depth discussion of the relevant sacred texts and arguments for and against the ordination of women can be found on the Wikipedia articleOrdination of women and a discussion of ordination can be found on the Wikipedia articleOrdination.
Most of these quotes are about the ordination of women in Christian churches and denominations; however, quotes about women in priestly or leadership positions in other religions may be added. The division of the Christianity quotes into denominations indicates that the quotes areabout the ordination of women in that denomination, not meaning the person being quoted formally represents that denomination or belongs to it.
There are only two classes of persons absolutely incapable of ordination; namely, unbaptized persons and women. Ordination of such persons is wholly inoperative. The former, because baptism is the condition of belonging to the church at all. The latter, because by nature, Holy Scripture and Catholic usage they are disqualified.
What St. Paul said about women cannot justly be regarded as determining the policy of the Church for all time. It was idle to assert that the function of women was to be good wives and mothers. If the State treated women and men on a basis of equality the Church could not always be able to keep women on a basis of inferiority. The time was coming when the ordination of women would be an accomplished fact.
There is no fear that the truth of the equality in Christ of men and women, will not be ultimately accepted by the Church. Despite the fact that at the present time fewer women are said to be coming to the Church, there is no doubt that women have religious souls. There is no reason why women should be excluded from ordination.
From our study of holy orders and the difference between the sexes in scripture, church history and contemporary society, we can find no considerations weighty enough to justify any longer the exclusion of women from ordination.
To conclude, there are substantial theological reasons, expressed in God's word and based on the divine creation of men and women in relationship, and confirmed in human nature, which are barriers to the ordination of women to the position of headship in the congregation.
Because the humanity of Christ our High Priest includes male and female, it is thus urged that the ministerial priesthood should now be opened to women in order the more perfectly to represent Christ’s inclusive High Priesthood.
I believe our church has the authority to develop and enrich the threefold ordained ministry by including women within its scope.
John Gaden,1986, quoted in Gaden, John (1994). Reid, Duncan (ed.).A vision of wholeness. EJ Dwyer. p170. ISBN0855743972.
Just as I cannot give birth to a child so this Church cannot grant Holy Orders to the female sex.
BishopJohn Hazlewood, Ballarat Synod, 1986, quoted in Janet Nelson, Linda Walter (1989)Women of Spirit: Woman's place in church and society, St Mark's Canberra, p. 146.
It would be analogous to consecrating a meat pie on the altar of God to ordain a woman.
I simply took time to work through everything the Bible said about women. I discovered it was once again a surprising book. If I could communicate one thing to my evangelical friends about the ordination of women, it would be that not only have I not thrown out the Bible, I have been converted from a submissive woman into a simple Bible-believing Christian feminist by studying the word of God.
Rev Peta Sherlock in Field, ed.Fit for this Office: Women and Ordination. United States: Collins Dove, 1989.
Women don't want to be priests in order to be female patriarchs. We want to use power and understand power in an entirely different way. We want to be priests in order to enhance others' ability to use their gifts, to use power to empower, and this is a very threatening thing to the current system.
Up until now the Church has been able to struggle on with an exclusively male priesthood systematically depriving itself of half of its potential talent. Today our horizon is expanding. Worlds of Christian service and ministry will open up that have not yet been dreamed of.
Peter Carnley, Anglican Archbishop of Perth and Primate of Australia in "The yellow wallpaper" sermon at the ordination of the first women priests in the Anglican church of Australia, 7 March 1992 in Carnley, P (2001)The yellow wallpaper and other sermons, HarperCollins, p90.
My support for the ordination of women is not in spite of, but because of, the teaching of the New Testament as a whole.
Right ReverendKeith Rayner, then Archbishop of Melbourne and Primate of Australia, speech at Melbourne Synod, reported inSEE, April 1992, p11
For many years now I have been persuaded from my reading of Scripture as the revealed Word of God that ordination to the Anglican priesthood (understood in an evangelical way) depends on a candidate's godliness and giftedness rather than gender...I am further persuaded that some of the key arguments opposing the ordination of women...are deeply flawed exegetically, theologically, philosophically and pastorally.
Graham Cole, Ridley College inThe National Journal of the Movement for the Ordination of Women, October 1997: Incorporating Balaam's Ass-Sydney Synod edition. p10.
Most women, I find, actually don't want to be led by other women. They actually are more comfortable with male ministers than female ministers. And certainly men would be uncomfortable, as a general rule, under the leadership of a woman minister...I think it's part of human nature. I think it's the way God has wired us.
The theological reasons previously advanced with respect to restricting the ordination of women to the priesthood can be found in the substantial report of the Diocesan Doctrine Commission to the Synod in 1985. The Commission concluded that women are not to assume the authoritative teaching office that properly belongs to men in the Christian congregation. In our own context this would not appear to exclude absolutely the possibility of women preaching or teaching in church. It nevertheless appears to exclude the possibility of women exercising the role of a teaching elder or "priest" as that term is defined by the Anglican Ordinal. (Sec 4.7)
If the heart of the incarnation is our Lord’s humanity then it is difficult to argue that only some human beings can represent Christ... As I continue to reflect on the nature of the incarnation and on the inclusiveness of the redemptive work of Christ I find it hard to argue that only males can be considered for the priesthood...The women I have ordained and the women who are serving as priests in my present diocese have a deep sense of being called by God and they have gifts that have brought rich blessings in the places where they minister.
The whole matter takes an even more serious spiritual turn when one considers the sacramental consequences of a ‘purported’ ordination which is not valid. Women, according to classical catholic teaching, are not simply ‘preferably’ not called to be priests, but are actually unable to be ordained into the sacred priestly ministry. This means that many women, whatever else their fine and valuable spiritual and pastoral gifts might be, and however much they may seem ‘priestly’, are not actually priests.
I had a strong sense of calling to the ordained ministry and that had been affirmed by the Church...I saw it as important that we image God both in the female form and in the male, was following that calling and walking that path...Priesthood for me is about serving, it's about loving, it's about imaging in God and working for justice and peace. It was allowing me to be fully who I was called to be.
In brief to resist the ordination of women as priests on the basis that it undermines the unity of the Church simply does not square with what unity actually looks like on the ground in the twenty-first century global Christianity. Indeed, women priests provide a remarkable window into other dimensions of the unity of the gospel that resonates powerfully and authentically with our current cultural context. It is a development that we can confidently embrace for the sake of the coming one church of Jesus Christ.
I am announcing that I am opening a discussion on the Ordination of Women in this Diocese...I will then allow appropriate legislation to come forward to the next Synod to permit the adoption of the General Synod Canon which enables women to be priested in the Diocese, and we will have a full debate at the next Synod on that, and I will allow a vote. The Synod will have the opportunity to debate it, and to vote on it at that Synod. Whatever the decision of Synod I will support that decision. If it passes, I will not block it.
For many women in this diocese...you have endured testing and trials...and I wish to apologise to the three of you and all the other women who have been on the receiving end of abuse and vitriol and a determination to deny your sense of vocation within this diocese and all because you have tried to respond to a call of God that you believe is on your lives. And I would also like to apologise for my part in that denial of your vocation and apologise to you personally today for my involvement in that.
In keeping with the Lutheran Confessions, St Stephen’s congregation believes that the Lutheran church calls and ordains pastors for one reason only, and that is to ensure that the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments are administered. Through these ‘means of grace’ the Holy Spirit continues to create and sustain saving faith in people’s hearts (Augsburg Confession 5 and 14). By withholding the pastoral ministry from women, the LCA/NZ [Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand] has injected a prohibition into its body of teachings that lacks support from the Bible and the Confessions and strikes at the heart of the gospel.
We are asking you to accept the principle that no woman should he debarred from the Christian ministry merely on the ground of her sex. The report proposes we should start with the two existing ministries of women in our church — the deaconesses order and the women in the mission field — and bring them together into a new order which should meet in annual convocation and have considerable authority in the direction of women's work. Having done that, the report further suggests that from this new order it should be possible for a woman to offer herself for those tests for the ordained and itinerant ministry of our church for which men offer themselves from year to year.
If the liberation of women is not proclaimed, the church’s proclamation cannot be about divine liberation. If the church does not share in the liberation struggle of Black women, its liberation struggle is not authentic. If women are oppressed, the church cannot possibly be “a visible manifestation that the gospel is a reality”—for the gospel cannot be real in that context. One can see the contradictions between the church’s language or proclamation of liberation and its action by looking both at the status of Black women in the church as laity and Black women in the ordained ministry of the church.
Jacquelyn Grant, "Black Theology and the Black Woman," inWords of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, 1995, p. 325
2020s
What in our biblical/theological DNA has made women’s ministry and ordination a continued theme?...The biblical basis for women's ordained eldership in the church is Genesis 1...Men and women are ordered by God to be joint mediators of God's Word, God’s blessing, and God’s rule in creation (prophet, priest and king—the functions of ordination in the church). This picture is also God's perfect intention for male/female relations...Our tradition has thus been more open to women elders due to our expectation that God will manifest the restored position of women, relations between women and men, and women's and men's joint ordained role as mediators of God's blessing.
Even though PCEA [Presbyterian Church of East Africa] was among the earliest churches to ordain the first woman clergy, the progress of ordination of women compared to men remains inadequate. Cultural aspects, patriarchy, and religious traditions of the Church have influenced the position of women in the church. Patriarchy as a theology of headship continues to be a roadblock to having many women ordained in the church...The study concludes that no theological, biblical, or traditional ratification hinders women from being ordained as ministers of word and sacrament...The church should extirpate all forms of discrimination, patriarchy, negative attitudes, and cultural practices that deny women life in its fullness.
it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church.
A woman can no more be a priest than a pigeon can be a Christian.
Monsignor Angelo Becclu, New Zealand Papal Nuncio, reported in theSydney Morning Herald, 13 November, 1989, p10 and Barbara L Field, "Conflicting discourses: attitudes to the ordination of women in the Anglican Church in Australia" p53 in Alan W. Black (ed),Religion in Australia: Sociological Perspectives ,1991
I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.
We long prayed that Pope Francis would be transformed by the testimonies of women sharing their sincere calls from God to ordained ministry, and guide the church towards embracing the fullness of women’s equality... As we reflect on Francis’ legacy and take time to mourn his passing, WOC [Women's Ordination Conference] will remain steadfast in our commitment to advocating for women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. We pray that Pope Francis’ successor will build on his spirit of dialogue and courageously— and finally—open the door to women as deacons, priests, and bishops.
[No one] “has the power to transform this divine gift to adapt it and reduce its transcendent value to the cultural and environmental field. No council, no synod, no ecclesiastical authority has the power to invent a female priesthood… without seriously damaging the perennial physiognomy of the priest, his sacramental identity, within the renewed ecclesiological vision of the Church, mystery, communion and mission. The Catholic faith professes that the sacrament of holy orders, instituted by Christ the Lord, is one; it is identical for the universal Church. For Jesus, there is no African, German, Amazonia, or European priesthood.
It is a divine gift that must be received, understood and lived, and the Church has always sought to understand and enter deeper into the real and proper being of the priest, as a baptized man, called to be analter Christus, another Christ, even more ipse Christus, Christ Himself, to represent Him, to conform to Him, to be configured and mediated in Christ with priestly ordination.
The priest is a man of God who is day and night in the presence of God to glorify Him, to adore Him. The priest is a man immolated in sacrifice to prolong the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world.
