EUROPE: Norway's Lutherans praise Church of England on women bishops decision

July 10, 2008 [Ecumenical News International, Oslo] The (Lutheran) Church of Norway has praised the Church of England for its decision to support the consecration of women as bishops, saying that the ordained ministry cannot be limited to men.

"The Church of England has taken a bold and mature action knowing well the immediate costs involved," the Church of Norway said, following the July 7 decision by the General Synod of the Church of England to bring forward legislation to allow women bishops.

"The Church of Norway, having gone through a similar process some years ago, and having been much blessed by its fruits, will accompany the Church of England, as a sister church in communion, with gratitude and with prayers of God's blessing and guidance in the time to come," the Norwegian church said in a July 10 press release.

About 1,300 clergy have threatened to leave the Church of England if they judge the "safeguards" for those objecting to women bishops to be insufficient.

"The gender of ordained ministers cannot be a criterion of the church's apostolicity," the Church of Norway said. "On the contrary, the admittance of women to all levels of ordained ministry has contributed significantly to the full expression of God's mission in the world."

The press release quoted a 2007 statement by the Lutheran World Federation that states, "limiting the ordained ministry to men obscures the nature of the church as a sign of our reconciliation and unity in Christ through baptism across the divides of ethnicity, social status and gender."

In Tanzania, however, Anglican Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa cautioned on the move in the Church of England, saying his church's synod would meet soon to determine its official position. "I am personally not opposed to women preachers among the faithful and they have done our church proud, but when it comes to matters of the collar it is a different thing," Tanzania's The Citizen newspaper quoted him as saying.

The Church of England decision was also criticized by the Vatican, which called it, "a further obstacle to reconciliation." The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church said the decision was, "predictable because the tendency of total liberalization unfortunately dominates in many Christian churches."

The Church of England and the Church of Norway belong to the Porvoo Communion of the British and Irish Anglican churches and Lutheran churches in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

The Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the Church of Norway's Council on Ecumenical and International Relations, said the fact that until now the Church of England has not recognized the ministry of women bishops in the Nordic churches set unfortunate limits to the implementation of the Porvoo agreement.