2014-08-03

TABLET letters

Implications of a married priesthood

31 July 2014

In his ARTICLE  advocating a married priesthood, Chris McDonnell (“One man, two vocations”, 19 July) does not mention that within the Eastern Rite Churches the concept of episcopal, priestly and diaconal vocation is different from that within the Roman Catholic Church. Whereas in the Latin West priesthood is seen as a vocation from God, in the East it is a vocation from the Church. Hence, the stories of the Fathers are replete with men running off into the desert to avoid ordination at all costs, at times being dragged back to be ordained as a priest or, more commonly, a bishop by their congregations. Another major difference in Eastern ecclesiology is that the deacon, priest and bishop remain members of the laity. Whist there has been a tendency to clericalism in some Orthodox Churches, there have always been correcting voices, such as the late Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and Paul Evdokimov within the Russian tradition of the twentieth century. In this way bishops, priests and deacons have been more accountable to the Church of which they are a part – as opposed to being the Church to which others belong.

Patrick Hampshire, Camborne, Cornwall

I agree with Peter Simmons’ letter (26 July) in response to my article in one respect: that in the matter of vocations the way forward is surely to become the kind of Church which will attract men to full-time service. But that is as far as it goes.

To argue that the vocation to marriage and the vocation to priesthood cannot be fulfilled in one person is to make nonsense of both vocations. If it were true, then the Church has done us all a great disservice in accepting married men from the Anglican community for ordination either as individuals or through the pathway of the ordinariate. Or should we accept that the marriage option is of greater importance than sharing the Eucharist with the people? What of the years before the council of the Lateran in 1139? Or the hundreds of years of experience of priests in the Orthodox Church to the present day? The argument for the continual support of the discipline of celibacy in the Latin Rite is based on an unsubstantiated premise.

No, we should ask the laity to take on a greater share of responsibility within the parish, accept that the loving relationship between a man and woman as husband and wife in no way impedes either of them expressing their love of God and that together they help each other live out their vocation. Their service to the community will be enhanced, not impaired. Please, recognise the real world we all live in.

Of course there will be problems, but there are problems now. For those who are married, there are breakdowns in their marriages, for those ordained there are occasions when their inability to live a celibate life conflicts with their vow as a priest. But that’s life, none of us is perfect. Let’s just do our best to live in service of one another, and the good Lord.

Chris McDonnell, Little Haywood, Staffordshire