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Being the Report of a Commission appointed by
the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York
Published by the Church Information
Office, London. Dec. 1966
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
7
CHAPTER 1
Why has the question been
re-opened now?
10
CHAPTER 11
Biblical and historical
evidence
12
CHAPTER 111
Psychological and other related
considerations
17
CHAPTER 1V
Ecumenical considerations
20
CHAPTER V
The case against the ordination
of women to the priesthood
25
CHAPTER V1
The case for the ordination of
women to the priesthood
28
CHAPTER V11
A third view
30
CHAPTER V111
Forms of ministry for women other
than the priesthood
32
A note on the Order of Deaconesses
32
APPENDIX 1
Evidence submitted to the
Commission
38
APPENDIX 2
Bibliography
40
APPENDIX 3
Supplementary Essays:
A.
Psychological considerations, by
Robert F. Hobson
45
B.
Ecumenical considerations, by G.
R. Dunstan
74
C.
Why the Christian priesthood is
male, by V. A. Demant
96
D.
The case for the ordination of
women to the priesthood, by Kay M Baxter
115
E.
A third view, by Alan
Richardson
123
F.
Suggestions for a lay ministry,
by Alan Richardson
129
Terms of Reference
In November, 1962, the Church Assembly passed the following
resolution:
‘
That the Archbishops be asked to appoint a Committee to make a thorough
examination of the various reasons for “ the withholding of the ordained
and representative priesthood from women ” and to report to the
Archbishops.’
In pursuance of this Resolution, the Archbishops appointed
the following to serve on a Commission to examine the question of Women and
Holy Orders:
The
Lord Bishop of Chester (the Right Reverend G. A. Ellison, D.D.)
Chairman.
Mrs
Kay M. Baxter, M.A., member of the Central Advisory Council for the Ministry
and till lately Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Secretary of the
University of Cambridge Women’s Appointments Board.
The
Reverend Professor Henry Chadwick, D.D., F.B.A., Regius Professor of Divinity
in the University of Oxford.
The
Reverend Mother Clare, Dss., C.S.A., M.A.(Lambeth) (resigned owing to ill
health November, 1964; died December, 1965).
The
Reverend Professor V. A. Demant, D.LITT., Regius Professor of Moral and
Pastoral Theology in the University of Oxford.
The
Reverend G. R. DUNSTAN, M.A., F.S.A., Minor Canon of Westminster
Abbey.
Miss
C. P. Goodenough, M.A., S.TH., Assistant to the Diocesan Missioner, Diocese of
Southwark (Member of the Commission from December, 1963).
Robert F. Hobson, B.A., M.D., B.CHIR., D.P.M., Physician, The Bethlem Royal
Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital, and Lecturer in Psychiatry, University of
London.
The
Very Reverend Alan Richardson, D.D., Dean of York.
The
Very Reverend E. S. Abbott, D.D., K.C.V.O., Dean of Westminster, was an
original Member of the Commission but had to resign on doctor’s orders
before he had attended any meetings.
The
following served as Secretary to the Commission:
The
Reverend Canon N. M. Kennaby, M.A. (now Dean of St Albans) (till December,
1963).
The
Reverend M. J. Nott, B.D. (now Archdeacon of Maidstone) (1964-5).
Miss
G. Cowan, M.A., M.LITT. (1966).
The
Commission held fourteen meetings during the period May 1963 to May 1966, one
of them a two-day residential meeting at Oxford; the rest were one-day
meetings, held in London.
Contents of “Women and Holy
Orders
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