A document including the priesthood proposals was unveiled by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) that groups Spain's leading bishops at a 600-strong gathering in Madrid.

The document was drawn up after consultations with more than 215,000 people, mostly lay people but also priests and bishops.

The CEE will debate the proposals on Saturday in Madrid. Among them will be suggestions put forward by the Archdiocese of Barcelona, led by Cardinal Juan José Omella. He is also the CEE's president, representing Spain's 70 archdioceses.

The recommendations will be presented to the Vatican in October next year at its General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The first synod was established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 for the Vatican to consult its bishops about issues concerning the Church.

The CEE document stresses "the need to discern in greater depth about the question of optional celibacy for priests and the ordination of married people; to a lesser extent, the issue of the ordination of women has also arisen," it said.

"There is a clear request that, as a Church, we hold dialogue about these issues... to be able to offer a more holistic approach to our society," it said.

It also emphasised the need to "rethink the role of women in the Church", to give them "greater leadership and responsibility", notably in places "where decisions are made".

There was also "a need for greater care" for those who have been divorced or remarried or have an alternative sexual orientation.

"We feel that, as a Church... we must welcome and accompany each person in their specific situation," it said.

The document was unveiled just months after politicians approved Spain's first official investigation into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The Church itself also took its first steps earlier this year towards addressing alleged abuse by clergy. It engaged lawyers to conduct a year-long investigation that will take cues from similar investigations in France and Germany.

Sources

South China Morning Post

The International News

The trouble is, nobody's noticed them or they've been hidden - some as recently as 1916.

The artefacts may help in the current debate over female ordination, which hinges on the role of women in early Christianity.

Kateusz, who is from the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research presented her research at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University last week.

She had examined fifth-century artefacts that show the early Christian liturgy "as it was performed at that time," she says.

What she found was "A gender parallel liturgy - men and women at the altar."

The three artefacts she focused on were:

• a fifth century ivory box that shows a woman standing next to an altar with a chalice on it (from Old St. Peter's in Rome)
• a male and a female figure standing on either side of an altar while holding arms up in the orans pose - symbolically hinting at equality between both genders (from the Second Hagia Sophia, Constantinople)
• a mosaic depicting Mary the mother of Jesus, wearing a blue robe and bishop's vestment, recognisable by the red cross and also holding the orans pose, next to two men in white (from theLateran Baptistery, Rome).

Kateusz thinks the first Christians were influenced by Jewish sects that gave men and women roles when they worshipped.

The theology for the liturgy would have been 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, because both Jew and Greek were leaders in the ecclesia; there is neither free nor slave, because both were leaders in the ecclesia; and there is neither male nor female, and both were leaders in the ecclesia'," she says.

Another example Kateusz mentions is at the San Venantius chapel in the Lateran Baptistery, Rome.

The seventh-century mosaic shows Mary wearing what appears to be a pallium, which is a symbol of episcopal authority given to new archbishops.

After the Vatican forbade images in 1916 of Mary dressed in vestments, the image was obscured.

Another researcher, Sister Christine Schenk, has published a book about the 3rd to 5th century sarcophagi at the Vatican's Pio Cristiano museum of Christian antiquity showing women teaching and preaching surrounded by male disciple figures.

Source

• Daily Mail
• The Tablet
• Image: SlideShare

When it ordained five women on 3 December 1977, New Zealand was the fourth province of the Anglican Church to ordain women priests.

The first woman ordained an Anglican priest was Li Tim Oi, ordained extra-canonically in 1944 in Hong Kong.

32 years later, in 1974, 11 women were ordained (defying canon law) in the Episcopal Church USA.

Canada gained its first women priests in 1976, the Church of North India in 1984, and Brazil in 1985.

The remainder of the 16 provinces which have now ordained women did not do so until the 1990s or later.

In 1990, former Bishop of Dunedin Penny Jamieson became the first female diocesan bishop in the Anglican Communion.

In 1989 Bishop Barbara Harris had become the first female Anglican bishop in history, on her appointment as a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

To help parishes and ministry units celebrate the anniversary, Archdeacon of Auckland Carole Hughes has worked with a three-Tikanga group of advisers to prepare a commemorative liturgy of the Eucharist for use on 3 December.

The Reverend Jean Brookes was one of those ordained in 1977.

She thinks it is good to use milestones such as this year's anniversary to recognise all women who have ministered in this Church.

"There are stories that we need occasions like this to retell - to prevent them being lost," she said. "There is an enormous variety and richness in the ministries women have exercised.

"For example, we cannot forget the remarkable ministry of many women who chose to remain as deaconesses, who were in ordained ministry already and valued the continuity of that special ministry, even as others moved into the priesthood."

Brookes has also been impressed at how many women in these islands have taken up ministry as priests.

Source

• Anglican Taonga
• Anglican Communion News Service
• Image: Librarian J Bright from the Howick parish history, When all the Saints by Robert Hattaway and Margaret Willis.

It is the first time the women bishops, who have served in the Anglican Episcopate for various lengths of time ranging from less than 2 years to more than 23 years, have met together.

They met at The Abbey on Raymond Island, in the Diocese of Gippsland, Australia.

The bishops issued a communiqué which expresses their general concern "for the well-being of girls and women across the Anglican Communion and the opportunities for them to live into the fullness of their humanity."

They also affirmed the statement developed by the Anglican delegation to 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which calls (among other things) for "the God-given empowerment of all God's children."

The women bishops went on to say that they see "commitment to the effective inclusion of female voices in decision-making at all levels as vital for the world and the church.

The bishops attending the meeting were:

• The Rt Rev'd Genieve Blackwell, Bishop of the Marmingatha Episcopate, Diocese of Melbourne
• The Rt Rev'd Kay Goldsworthy, Bishop of Gippsland
• The Rt Rev'd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Waikato
• The Rt Rev'd Dr Sarah Macneil, Bishop of Grafton
• The Rt Rev'd Victoria Matthews, Bishop of Christchurch
• The Rt Rev'd Alison Taylor, Bishop for the Southern Region, Diocese of Brisbane
• The Rt Rev'd Kate Wilmot, Administrator, Diocese of Perth

Source

• anglicannews.org
• anglicantaonga.org.nz
• anglicantaonga.org.nz
• Image: anglicannews.org

The Australian news site The Age reported that the excommunication document - written in Latin - was dated May 31.

Reynolds, who resigned as a parish priest in 2011 and last year founded Inclusive Catholics, said he had expected to be laicised (defrocked), but not excommunicated.

"In times past excommunication was a huge thing, but today the hierarchy have lost such trust and respect," Reynolds was quoted by The Age.

"I've come to this position because I've followed my conscience on women's ordination and gay marriage," he said.

Excommunication is the strongest sanction and means one can not hold any office or receive any sacraments. Being laicised means one is no longer a priest.

In the same article, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said Reynolds was excommunicated because after his priestly faculties were withdrawn he continued to celebrate the Eucharist publicly and preach contrary to the teachings of the church.

Reynolds is not the first Australian Catholic to be excommunicated. Sister Mary MacKillop was excommunicated by her local bishop but was reinstated. In 2010 she became Australia's first saint.

Sources

The Age

Huffington Post

NCR Online

Image: Angela Wylie/The Age