,Bluntisham Rectory, Huntingdon. • R. F. McNot.E . . SIR,—Your correspondent Lady
Nunburnholme, in her letter advocating the admission of women to the priesthood, has given proof that the Church of England has in many cases failed to teach the faith it pro- fesses. The Holy Catholic Church of Christ, of which the Anglican communion is part, has always insisted that women may not be ordained ; and, the Church's reason for so insisting is abundantly clear. The Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ and He ordained no women. Judging with purely human powers of comprehension, no woman could, or can be, more worthy of ordination than Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and yet in His divine wisdom Our Lord ordained no women. As Our Lord then did not ordain rule most holy woman of all time, what authority have his bishops to ordain women today? It is not a question of freedom of race, class or sex ; nor is it a matter of prejudice or intel- lect ; it is a question of authority. The spiritual powers of our bishops have been passed down in unbroken apostolic succession from Our Lord Himself, and as Our Lord gave no authority to the Apostles to ordain women, who then may do so ?
This issue is in its essentials coupled with the vexed subject of inter- communion with Nonconformists. To do either or both of these things would be to repudiate the essential doctrine of apostolic succession, and if there are Bishops at Lambeth who contemplate one of those compro- mises so beloved of us English, let them be warned by a layman that an attempt to introduce the ordination of women or intercommunion with Nonconformists would split the Church of England from top to bottom.
Let there be no mistake, those of us in the Church of England who not only say the Creed but believe all of it, who not only profess the Catholic faith but by the grace of God practise all of it, will accept no watering- down of the religion given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, or of the faith taught throughout the ages by His Holy Catholic Church.—Yours
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