take a vote, but afterward each minister will write a onepage summary of his best understanding of the doctrine to
give to Bishop Keith.
This session was shared with the Rev. Jay Barry,
who pre-circulated a paper, “Does Our Defense of the
Male Intellect Form of the Clergy Injure the Affection of
Truth?” Mr. Barry raised awareness that our pattern of
communication about the suitability of the male mind
for the uses of the clergy can injure women by giving,
Jay Barry's paper asked
whether emphasizing
for example, the impression that men are superior. The
the male intellect
difficulty for some women, he said, is that there is not one
contributed to injuring
the affection of truth.
gender-specific reference in what the Writings say about the
clergy form of use. His paper asked whether emphasizing
the male intellect contributed to injuring the affection of truth.
After reviewing highlights of his paper, Mr. Barry introduced an exercise
based on the story of the Lord healing Jairus’ daughter. He saw this story as a
model for how the Lord deals with difficult situations in which the affection
for truth appears to die.
The loss of the affection of truth, he said, is a much bigger issue than our
tensions over the clergy, and the Church could be lost if we remain an all-male
clergy and do not nurture the affection of truth, as also if we do admit women
and fail to foster that affection. If we can preserve the affection of truth, the
Lord will preserve this church. The exercise involved using the characters in
the story to help us see our role in blocking or in cooperating with the Lord in
His healing of the Church.
Following this exercise, Bishop Buss briefly reviewed some of the materials
pre-circulated, including: “What We’re Hearing” – a document designed to
acknowledge the range of lay perspectives that have been shared; a summary
of a survey on the matter originated by some members of the Bryn Athyn
Church; and links to lay studies on the subject. We took 30 minutes for smallgroup discussion,, followed by a few comments shared with the whole group.
Two papers on the representative function of priests: The Rev. Michael
D. Gladish introduced his paper with key points, stating that the priesthood
is still representative despite the abrogation of most other representatives, but
now the priest must be in integrity in accord with the representation.
Priests represent the Lord, who came into the world as a male for reasons
having to do with the characteristics of a male, and males can represent the
form the Lord chose to take on. The representation of the priesthood is the
good of the Lord’s love, but the job is to teach the truth, and this combination,
he said, requires a male priesthood.
The primary function of the priesthood is to teach the truth, and this
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