Thank you George Pitcher - you've said in a nutshell what I'm only yet half way through reading in Ken Bailey's fab book.

Should women become Church of England bishops?


G Pitcher describe how the consecration of women bishops is an
inevitable and logical action. He looks at it in terms of social justice but more importantly he looks at it theologically.

Interestingly he also objects to those conservative evangelicals who argue that Christ's timeless Church is not subject to shifts of social fashion, by arguing that the society in which we live is every bit as much a part of God's creation as the world by which St Paul was conditioned; that we are eternally invited by God, to understand the Word in the context and through the prism of the world in which we live.

He looks at practical reasons for women being in this position and cites that sometimes a duty of care is extended to abused women. These women can't be adequately cared for by an institution that itself discriminates against women.

Really, though, these arguments will only help a little. We need to look at the idea from within a theological framework.

G Pitcher goes on to sum up many of the points made by Ken Bailey in his book 'Jesus through Middle-Eastern eyes' which I've recommended and am part way through reading. In it, Bailey looks at those traditional passages that have often been mis-read by Anglo-Catholics and conservative Evangelicals and enables us to understand how the gospel does not prohibit from preaching God's Word anybody on the basis of their gender.