Walter Cardinal Kasper, a Catholic Cardinal, recently warned the Church of England that any move to consecrate women as bishops would make it impossible for the two churches to restore full relations. The Church of England ordains women as deacons and priests, but not bishops. I find this very odd; in the Anglican Church, the only difference between a priest and a bishop is that bishops have more administrative roles and wear large, funky hats called mitres. Can't miss the hats. The Roman Catholic Church should not be upset with us because we may or may not consecrate women as bishops. If they want to do it that way, they should have stopped talking to us when we started having women priests. That, and three provinces in the Anglican Communion (including my newly-adopted Episcopal Church) consecrate women as bishops already, and another seven allow women as bishops but have not yet consecrated any. I suppose one could make a case for ordaining women as deacons and not priests, since deacons can't celebrate communion. But if women can be priests, they be bishops and wear their funky hats. It amazes me that in the twenty-first century, women cannot be bishops in some churches. However, as my mom pointed out, this isn't a matter of keeping up with the times; women have functioned as leaders since the dawn of the Christian church. Conservative CoE clergy have spoken of creating a third province in England (there's Canterbury and York) in response to the future consecration of female bishops; this province would restrict women to the laity.

In the photo, Gene Robinson, the infamous gay bishop of New Hampshire, is wearing a gold mitre (this was taken just after his consecration; I hear he also wore a bulletproof vest to that one). In the Anglican Communion, only bishops wear mitres; in the Roman Catholic Church, only popes, cardinals and bishops wear them, plus some people in other offices that the Pope chooses to honor. In both churches, if you wear a funky hat, you make the rules.