Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00036)

> From: M K Ramadoss <ramadoss@eden.com>
> >Doss:
> >>Ann: Do you know if LCC allows women to hold the offices all the way up to
> >>the *Pope*?
> >
> >This was covered in another post.  There is no title of Pope, but Presiding
> >Bishop.   No women are ordained to holy orders, but are permitted to be
> >servers or deaconesses at the altar.
>
>   With my understanding of one ascpect of the first object of TS -- which is
> no discrimination on the basis of sex, it would be impossible to reconcile
> myself with any organization which excludes women from holding the highest
> office. Who can say a woman is not fit to hold any office anywhere? It is
> sheer hypocracy for a T/theosophist to even participate in any organization
> which discriminates in any manner.
>
The LCC was organized and set up basically by the clairvoyance of CWL,
whose opinons and insights, are to this day, considered unquestionable by
those in charge of the church.

These are his words, as taken from The Science of the Sacraments, Pg. 391,
written by him as a guide to the Liberal Catholic church in terms of
vestments and ritual.

"It is often asked whether a woman could validly be ordained.  The forces now
arranged for distribution though the priesthood would not work efficiently through
a feminine body; but is is quite conceivable that the present arrangements may be
altered by the Lord Himself.  It would no doubt be easy for Him, if He so chose,
either to revive some from of the old religions in which the feminine Aspect of
the Deity was served by priestesses, or so to modify the physics of the
Catholic scheme of forces that a feminine body could be satisfactorily employed
in the work.  Meantime, we have no choice but to administer His Church along
the lines laid down for us."

Since this was written, around 1920, other churches have decided to let
women participate fully.  While I know there
are bishops and priests in the LCC sympthetic to the idea of women
being ordained, I can only surmise that the majority of those in power do
not want this or it would have happened.  The present presiding bishop, in his
magazine, heartily denounces any type of change in the church.  He believes
that the arrangements made by Wedgewood and Leadbeater are permanent.
So this is more than an issue of the equality in the church, but a lack of
desire to make any changes in the church.

How does the LCC fit into the future Aquarian Age, with its emphasis on equality?
I really don't know.

-AEB

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