More new women priests than men

[IndianaGreen]

Source: BBC News


Most women priests are taking
on unpaid positions

More new women priests than men

Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 14:33 GMT

The number of women who became priests in the Church of England outnumbered men last year for the first time since the church began ordaining women.

The Church of England said 244 women were ordained, compared with 234 men.

Most of the women becoming priests in 2006 did not become full-time paid clergy, but took voluntary posts.

A spokeswoman for the Church of England said issues of inequality between men and women, who first became priests in 1994, were being addressed.

BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggott said the number of people training for ordination rose in the last decade, with women making up a steadily larger proportion.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7091976.stm

[rodeodance]

1. guess this is not surprizing

[IndianaGreen]

2. Women have always played a big role in churches and synagogues

which is what makes it strange that so many religious denominations keep women away from holding leadership positions.

COE has been very good at promoting women as priests, but they have yet to remove the glass ceiling.

[JerseygirlCT]

4. I heard an older woman explain this to me once when I was much

younger.

In her thinking, the reason so many churches (like the RCC I grew up in, for instance) flat-out refuse to ordain women as priests is just because they do all of the work already. If they were also the clergy, men would have nothing to do, and would completely stop participating. Even then, my response was "so?, their problem, then".

[Ilsa]

3. Soon the men will be complaining that the women are driving down their salaries. nt

[JerseygirlCT]

5. LOL, exactly

Pay them less, force them into unpaid positions, then complain when salaries are heading down. We've seen that before, too many times.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. what a positive step! not only are

women more nurturing, but I suspect the levels of sexual child abuse will drop, too.

[Crayson]

7. I guess women are just more susceptible to esoterics

The churches should be happy they still have some believers.
^_^

My money will definitely go into technology and research rather than church collects.
I hope they find and eliminate the "urge to believe in higher beings" gene soon.