Women Priests:
Freedom and Providence
Chelsea Rose Odhner
I
n the April 1937 issue of New Church Life is an account by the Rev. Charles
E. Doering recalling the 1897 Assembly when Bishop W. F. Pendleton shared
his seminal Notes on the Government of the Church.1 Mr. Doering recalls:
Bishop Pendleton put it: “A spiritual government is one of influx, and natural
Government is one of command.” And he urged that we do not incorporate
into the organic life of the church an idea of distrust. After presenting his notes
on government (which everyone who has ideas of how the church ought to be
governed should read), he suggested a plan of organization, based on the uses,
which is essentially the form of government we have today…Each generation, as it
comes along, will need to see these principles in their application to the affairs of
the church at the time – see the distinction there is between government by influx
and government by command. For the church, if it is to continue to be a spiritual
church, must be ruled by the idea of the former, and not the latter. (120)
I believe the principles referenced in this quote have critical application to
the issue at hand. I think it is worth serious consideration whether maintaining
a policy in which women are forbidden from the priesthood would be to have
a government ruled by command rather than influx and so would not be
in accord with the spiritual principles that are foundational to the General
Church (specifically those of trust, freedom, mutual love or charity, and use
in form).
When the priesthood and government were first being set up in the
General Church the fact that priests would be male-only was a given – there
was no need for debate. Now for the past 40 years, about every 10 years the
1 Doering’s account is worth reading in its entirety for a brief synopsis of the beginnings of the General
Church. 1897 was the year that nearly all members resigned from the Church of the Academy and the
General Church of the Advent of the LORD on account of the Rev. W. H. Benade’s abuse of power as
Chancellor. Benade then formally withdrew from the office of Chancellor. The movement reorganized as
the General Church of the New Jerusalem and elected, provisionally at first and later officially, the Rev.
W.F. Pendleton to serve as Bishop. (Odhner 44-45) The General Church held its first Assembly that June,
at which Bishop Pendleton gave his Notes on the Government of the Church. (Pendleton 107)
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