Statement about
Gender and Clergy
The Rt. Rev. Brian W. Keith
Executive Bishop of the General Church
Preface: This article has been available electronically prior to publication in
New Church Life and has generated a high degree of interest and feedback.
It is published here to ensure its availability to all who wish to read it. It is
published in its original form, without changes based on feedback.
Dear Members and Friends of the General Church:
Many of you will know that the subject of gender and the clergy has been
under review by the General Church priesthood. This review has incorporated
a great deal of counsel from laity, in addition to extensive study by lay people
and priests.
The reason we have taken up the subject at this time is that questions have
been raised concerning the General Church’s position regarding the priesthood
as a masculine use. As can be imagined, there is a range of perspectives on this
position, with some taking it as a matter of course, others not being much
concerned, and still others being in disagreement with it. This topic raises
powerful emotions, too: painful emotions for some, and frustrations for others.
It is not useful for the Church to remain unsettled regarding this issue.
The purpose of this communication is to share with you the process of review
that we went through, the outcome, and some of the leading themes that bear
on the subject.
In this, as in all things of the Church, we seek the Lord’s guidance in
His Word. We are taught that “all the doctrine of the church must be from
the Word, and that the doctrine from any other source than the Word is not
doctrine in which there is anything of the church, still less anything of heaven.”
(Arcana Coelestia 9424:2; see also Arcana Coelestia 3445, 10603; Apocalypse
Revealed 576, 602; Heaven and Hell 455e, et al) O