The Practical Parson

 This past Saturday, the Diocese of which I am part held its ordinations to the priesthood.  This year we had 3 goodly candidates for orders, all sincere men who have expressed clearly over their years of formation a desire to serve and build up the church of God.  The service was obliged to be held at St. Timothy's Episcopal church in Winston-Salem; due to the fact that none of our own chapels at present would be able to hold the number of people who attended the service. I and the entire diocese are eternally grateful to the rector and people of St. Timothy's for allowing us to use their smaller chapel (to the side of the main church).  Words cannot possibly express our gratitude for their friendship and mutual work over the years.   The smaller chapel at St. Timothy's is not as small as it may sound, it's actually a quite decently sized church, and was the original church that their congregation started in many decades ago.  As I myself stood in the...

 In recent decades, more so since about 2007; there has been an increasing demand from people in the world for all churches to open up the ministry to women instead of just men.  While there are some denominations where such a shift would not matter greatly, as they are focused primarily on the written word instead of any actual service; to make such a demand of the sacramental priesthood is a problem which cannot be simply overcome by political ideology or social justice cause.  To put it bluntly, women cannot be priests.   Having nailed the colors to the mast with that statement, I will elaborate: From the beginnings of the Christian Church, the services and means of worship were never intended to be divorced from their Jewish origins.  To this day, within traditional sacramental worship, there are elements of the service which correlate to ancient Jewish temple practices; from the manner in which the priest holds his hands in prayer, to the way in which ...