in this issue
T
he Rt. Rev Brian W. Keith, Executive Bishop of the General Church,
presents a process for the Council of the Clergy meetings this June in Bryn
Athyn: The Priesthood and Gender: The Clergy Process for Reappraisal. This
includes: study of the Word prior to the meetings; sharing with clergy of themes
from various presentations and social media discussions; presentations at the
meetings on both sides of the women-in-the-priesthood issue; processing
clergy responses to develop a consensus; and reporting the findings to the
Church at large, with the goal of bringing some resolution to the question,
rather than leaving it open-ended. (Page 121)
This issue also includes a number of letters in response to the paper
published in the September-October 2013 issue by the Rev. N. Bruce Rogers,
Gender and the Priesthood of the New Church in the 21st Century; responses to
criticisms of that paper; a response from Mr. Rogers himself; and an article
by the Rev. Robert S. Jungé with a new way to look at the issue. We believe we
have given a fair balance of the many views on both sides of this active debate,
and while we still have several lengthy articles from both perspectives, we will
hold off on any further presentations until the process for the Council of the
Clergy plays out in June. (Page 111)
The Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss Jr. offers an Easter message, That Which Reigns
Universally. The words, “I am the LORD your God,” which introduce the Ten
Commandments, reign in every truth that follows, and must reign as the
central organizing force in our lives. This is the same God who rose on Easter
Sunday as our Regenerator and Savior – to the extent that we allow Him to
“reign universally” within us. (Page 123)
What should guide the policy of the General Church in all issues –
including the current debate over women in the priesthood? The Rev. Jeremy
F. Simons uses the story of Balaam to say that we must always look to the
Word and what God teaches – not to our own thinking. “The question is not
what the people or the leadership think is right,” he writes, “but what the Word
teaches when fully understood – whether we like it or not. This is the question
we look for consensus about.” (Page 126)
The Rev. Bradley D. Heinrichs, pastor of the Carmel New Church in
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, offers an Easter sermon, For He is Risen. “Let us
teach all nations,” he writes, “our friends, our neighbors, the wonderful truths
we have been given in the Writings, which will help them to gain a clearer
idea of God, to be nearer to Him, and more perfectly to worship Him in His
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