Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Mon, 16 Nov 1992 14:29:00 GMT
From:         Z_STAFF_CL@SOUTHAMPTON-INSTITUTE.AC.UK
Subject:      Prayer Update - C of E Synod

Thanks for your prayers so far.  This will let you know how
it all went and asks for further prayers.


From:   MINNIE::Z_STAFF_CL   11-NOV-1992 12:41:38.30
To:     CBS%UKNET-RELAY::BITNET.ASUACAD::CHRISTIA
Subj:   Prayer Requested - C of E Synod

> I am off home to watch the debate with a heavy heart.   Whatever the
> outcome,  people will be hurt.  I ask therefore, you all to pray not
> for one answer or another but for peace and harmony, joy and healing
> and Gods Will to be done whatever happens in the next few hours.
>
> I have the next couple of days off - to be with friends on both sides
> who will be hurt if the answer does not go their way.

The debate was sound if a little blander than expected.  Indeed there were
only three people who showed any emotion.  The first was a young woman
deacon newly elected to General Synod, who ended her maiden speech to Synod
with a plea to let her heart felt vocation to the priesthood to be tested.
The second was a woman who gave the "it won't work, it will split the church"
arguement.  Her logic had holes in it a mile wide but she at least had the
corrage not to talk about legislation and systems but about belief.  The
third was the Bishop of Durham.  Much as that man has annoyed me at times, he
was not talking about nuts and bolts but about Jesus and preaching the Gospel.
On the whole, those against the measure to allow women to be ordained talked
of legislation, splits and being careful.  Those for spoke of God, Gospel,
Love and justice.

When the vote came, I expected to be defeated.  The legislation isn't easy
and it is easier to maintain the status quo.  Easier to have a church where
quiet rejected people stay away than to have one where people noisily leave.
Yet I was wrong.  75% of Bishops said yes, about 70% of the elected clergy
and in the house of laity the required 2 thirds majority was reached.  Only
a handful of people abstained - if their had been another 2 laity do that
the measure would have been defeated.  I was stunned. Joyful that justice
was being done in an earthly fashion.  I hoped also that the justice was
also the type that God wanted.  Unlike many, however, I am not quite ready
to celebrate.  The work has only just started.  There are many broken hearts
for God and the church to heal.

I have many friends who now feel bereft of the church they thought was theirs.
In those 20 minutes it had changed, for them beyond recognition.  I know them
to be Good people and their faith and ministries are needed in this church.
In fact, I think they are needed more now than ever.  I pray that these people
will find the faith and strength to hang in there as my women (some deacons)
friends had over the last 20 years.

As I look at these people, I see that at least the women had the knowledge,
through faith, that God recognised their call and that there was hope to
change the church that refused to acknowledge that call could possibly exist.
Those who feel rejected now, do not have that comfort.  Please pray for them.

I hope this hasn't been one of those petty questions the Bible warns us about.
I hope it has been a question of sustance and not irrelevent to the Gospel. It
would be to our eternal shame if we've hurt these people for a question that
didn't matter.  Yet, even though I regret the hurt that has been done and I
wish there had been a "better way" that was practicable, I am sure that the
C of E has done what is right and just.

I've spent the last 4 days with hurt people who would disagree with that last
sentence.  Some of there kind have spent the previous few months saying that
Synod would do Gods will and reject the idea of women priests.  I know that in
their position, my human self would have wished the same.  In the past, I have
been "on the loosing side" and still prayed that what has been was Gods' will
and "what did God want of me now ?"  I pray these people can find the same
prayer in their hearts.

Me now ?  I have a call (Isa. again) to bind up the broken hearted and defend
believers from evil (Acts is it not ?)  My prayer for me is that I will be
given the Grace and Love to do just that.

Thank you all for your prayers.  It took a bit of time and some working out
but I am fairly much at Peace again. Thanks for allowing me to share what
has been so heavy on my heart.

God Bless.

Carol A Long,  Southampton Institute of Higher Education, England
        email     :  Z_STAFF_CL@UK.AC.SOUTHAMPTON-INSTITUTE
DISCLAIMER - merely musings unless otherwise stated.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia