LETTERS Women priests
Sir: I am truly grateful for Andrew Gim- son's article, 'Can women be priests?' (23 November). A layman of the Church of England, I also have 'huge reasons to say no'. It was good that Gimson mentioned C. S. Lewis and the small paperback God in the Dock, which is readily available now in bookshops. I would place this small book at the top of a reading list of 'musts' for theological students, bishops and clergy, as well as all the laity able to read.
Two points I would wish to mention after reading Gimson's article. First, there is no necessity for fed-up Anglicans to defect to Rome — or, for that matter, to the Orthodox, and they would be well advised to 'soldier on under Dr Leonard's leadership'. I will not develop the argu- ment here, but simply state that Rome is in the process of sorting itself out and (not unimportant) has still not renounced the `unCatholic' doctrines of the papacy: and that the Orthodox, in many ways the sounder of the two communions, are not perfect and have also inherited a faulty marriage discipline in their own tradition. In any case, were all Anglicans in some extraordinary way to cease to exist, there are the Old Catholics: we have been reunited with them in full communion since 1931. There may well come a time, when the Orthodox Anglicans will need to dissociate themselves from an unorthodox majority: and so continue as the ancient Catholic Church of this country. But the latter time has not yet arrived, and it may not be necessary. My second point is to recall a very important short statement, which the late Geoffrey Fisher managed to make after he became Archbishop of Canterbury, and ought to be memorised by Anglicans. I conclude with its quotation hereunder:
We have no doctrine of our own — we only possess the Catholic doctrine of the Catholic Church, enshrined in the Catholic Creeds: and those creeds we hold without addition or diminution.
Oliver Herbert
The Victory Services Club, 63/79 Seymour Street, London W2
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