An organisation bringing together campaigners from all over the world in favour of ordaining women met in Dublin for the first time last weekend. The delegates to the first-ever conference of Women’s Ordination Worldwide, or WOW, were mainly Catholics, but other denominations were also represented. Gathered in University College Dublin, the delegates, from 26 countries, made an impressive and colourful gathering, but the most significant part of the event was what happened behind the scenes.

First, there was the case of the would-be keynote speaker on the first night, Aruna Gnanadason of the World Council of Churches (WCC). In mid-May the organisers announced that Gnanadason would not be able to attend. The reason given was that the WCC didn’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of the Catholic Church. But one of the conference organisers, Soline Vatinel, told the Irish Times: The unofficial reason was that the Vatican said it would withdraw from commissions involving the WCC if Ms Gnanadason spoke at the conference. Some observers suggested that Orthodox Churches who are members of the WCC were also unhappy about her participation. In any case, her slot was instead filled by a Jamaican-born London vicar, the Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, while the text of Gnanadason’s undelivered speech was circulated to conference participants.
… Read more » … lire la suite »