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WEST AUSTRALIA: Ordination of Women Close, says Carnley
By Regina Titelius
The West Australian
3/3/2006
Ordination of Australia's first Anglican women bishops was likely to be less than two years away, according to the former archbishop of Perth, Peter Carnley.
Dr Carnley also said it was only a matter of time until gay marriages and gay priests gained wider acceptance by the Anglican Church.
And while some doomsayers and antagonists have predicted a break-up of the Anglican Church over the liberal approach to homosexuality and women, Dr Carnley said a large-scale division was unlikely.
"There's always a risk that people will become so browned off that they will want to go their own way," he said.
"You can't please everyone all of the time but you have to be able to take the majority with you.
"I think our communion can tolerate a fair bit of difference. We just have to agree to differ on some issues."
Since retiring from his Perth post last year, Dr Carnley has become the head of an international panel, called the Archbishop of Canterbury's Panel of Reference.
The panel mediates in disputes throughout the world following outrage over a Canadian diocese blessing same-sex relationships last year and the election of a gay bishop in the US in 2003.
These disputes and concerns over ordination of women have threatened to divide the Church, which has more than 70 million members.
While the Church of England may not ordain women bishops until 2012, Dr Carnley said this time frame was far too long and Australia could expect women bishops within two years.
"There's a question of balance, a question of justice, and the basic reality that the theological objectives that have been raised against having women bishops don't amount to much," he said.
"The argument is that Jesus only appointed 12 male apostles who were Jewish, circumcised and fishermen.
"But that doesn't mean that every bishop has to be Jewish, circumcised and a fisherman."
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