SÉAMUS AHEARNE: Woman as Archbishop and Artist…

SARAH MULLALLY:

Sarah Mullally prodded the door with her shepherd’s crook and broke into Canterbury Cathedral last Wednesday. She was installed as Archbishop. She is the first female in this role, after more than 1400 years. It took almost a year of deliberation for Sarah to emerge as leader. We managed to select, elect, Bob Prevost in a few days. The Holy Spirit must be more alert and active with us than with the Anglican Communion! Rowan Williams gently suggested (from his experience) that the ‘job’ is to encourage people ‘to be the Church’ and in that, it was necessary, to know what the Church isn’t. He then said: “Absorb and share the local stories. Don’t forget your ‘charter’ is God’s covenant, and that promise is not broken.” 

ORDINATION:

It is rather fascinating that we are still agonising over the deaconate for women. It does seem to be an unnecessary discussion, never mind an argument. Any reflection by ourselves would direct us to see that women are living that deaconate in our Church. There are outstanding women and brilliant leaders among us who keep our churches going. Statistically, surely it is women who are in the majority! The central sense of deaconate is service and care. Sometimes we get over exercised by the idea of ‘ordination.’ Some of us have questions over the male deaconate before we even venture into the female version. So often and too often, deacons have become ornaments of the Sanctuary and rather cosmetic. Much of that too is due to the priestly restrictions! The idea of someone being ordained who is married and who might be a parent is an enrichment of ministry. By the way, priesthood too needs to be re-examined and explored for a new understanding of what such ministry could mean. Vat 2 somehow neglected any serious description of what priesthood might mean for today’s world. Again the thought is there; we aren’t simply thinking of deaconate for women. We have to think what Church can be/has to be, today. How can it ever be, that many people now never even bother thinking of who or what God is…God is missing and not missed. And some of us are fiddling while Rome burns.

UNATTRIBUTED ARTISTS (WOMEN):

The BBC had a piece during the week on Art by women. Many were done by women but attributed to men. ‘The Triumph of Bacchus’ (Michaelina Wautier) was one such. ‘Self Portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria’ (another). ‘The Carousing Couple’ (again another). There are many others. It was culturally and traditionally assumed that such work couldn’t be attributed to women. Ordination has at least to be examined on the basis that a fundamentalist view of women has taken over in our Church thinking. There has been evolution of a stereotypical definition of the place of women in society. There is hardly any theological body of language which excludes women from an ordained role in church life. But the weight of history and the muscular battle of strong and different attitudes precludes an immediate decision on such matters. (Some avoid the battle because it is divisive – which is not a good enough reason.) It happened in Canterbury last Wednesday; some members of the Anglican Communion didn’t turn up because they couldn’t accept a woman as archbishop and can’t accept women as priests. Essentially, however, ministry should not be determined by gender. Ministry is ministry whoever does it! I do admit that I have a difficulty with women pundits in rugby!!!

FUNDAMENTALISM:

I don’t know how we can approach and somehow resolve the fundamentalist questions in our faith. It is clear enough on the feminist question. It is wholesale over the years in the interpretation and understanding of Scripture. It is obvious too in how we have overloaded Liturgy. There is hardly any space for God or a God-moment to happen with the Masses these days. All we need do is to look at the wonderful Scripture of Lent. Temptations. Transfiguration. Samaritan woman. Blind man. Lazarus. But these can’t be just read. They can’t be surrounded or choked by other readings. There has to be space. The quietness is essential. The sharing is necessary. The application to today has to happen. The passive nature of Liturgy can’t be tolerated. The ‘preaching priest’ can’t do it. The music can’t be performative; it has to be inclusive and wholeheartedly involved in the communion of those present. Fundamentalism is a curse in our understanding of faith. As Rowan Williams said: “How does this local community become church? Not by doing the same as any other church but by being itself. Where the Word is made flesh, in the lives and experiences of those present. The local story has to be absorbed and absorbing.”

ISN’T IT EXTRAORDINARY?

Wasn’t it extraordinary? That England got beaten by Scotland, by Ireland, by Italy, by France? (Rugby). Wasn’t it extraordinary that Dublin got beaten and were relegated? Wasn’t it extraordinary that Ireland did so well in Prague and that so many could afford to travel? Wasn’t it extraordinary that in half an hour three girls (UK) won gold at the Worlds in Poland? (Keely Hodgkinson, Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Caudery.) Wasn’t it extraordinary that when Mo Salah announced ‘the Leaving Of Liverpool,’ that Matthew Syed could write of the music, the ballet, the artistry, the poetry of this player? Wasn’t it extraordinary that Ireland were almost crowned as Grand Slam winners – only for that last penalty? Wasn’t it extraordinary that Troy Parrott had lifted a nation in recent months? Isn’t it extraordinary that a great Nation (USA) could have such a vacuous character called Trump as its leader? Isn’t it extraordinary – that the cowslips have reappeared in the front garden here? (They remembered the hospitality of the local minister).

Seamus Ahearne osa

28^th March 2026.