Wow, we're $*&@ing backward: Russian church alarmed at Anglican decision to "ordain women"

Interfax got something lost in translation and reported that the Moscow Patriarchate has expressed alarm at the Church of England's decision to ordain women. Really, they mean to consecrate them as bishops.

The Vatican also expresses regret, and they get the translation right, too.

Never, ever trust the media to report on church polity issues. They always mess some word or phrase up.

I understand that the consecrate women side won by quite a large margin. The International Herald Tribune reports that the debate to do so was "fractious", as was the debate over ordaining women (this time, I really mean ordaining). Here, we see Archbishop of York John Sentamu apparently pulling his hair out. But wait, he's already bald.

Perhaps it's the stress over the accelerating disintegration of the Anglican Communion and the Church of England that's made him go bald. The Church of England is already showing the strain over the gay debate. The consecration of women will allegedly drive a large number of conservative Anglo-Catholics out of the CoE.

The ordination of women in general may also have an effect on the GAFCON crowd, the conservatives who are trying to destroy the Anglican Communion. My chaplain speculates they may yet divide along lines of churchmanship. The conservative Anglo Catholics will not ordain women. The evangelicals may. Once you've got past the first division, it becomes a lot easier to purge the infidels in a neverending quest for purity.

On the other hand, if we eliminate the possibility of schism, then you must either do doctrine in the way that only the Romans do, complete with thought police (e.g. the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), or put up with increasingly loud caterwauling.

There is allegedly an ancient Chinese curse, which translates to "May you live in interesting times." This curse is probably an urban legend as reported by Wikipedia; if someone tries to use it on you, ask for the original Chinese. But anyway, these are certainly interesting times for the Anglican Communion. For sure, there's lots of caterwauling to come.


EDIT: I apparently glossed over one major issue. The Catholic perspective in Christianity seeks unity; after all, in the Nicene Creed, we profess believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. The Roman and Orthodox churches are far less likely to continue ecumenical dialog with the Anglicans now that the mother church, the Church of England, will have women bishops. This is distressing to many.