Statement on the the Vatican decision to excommunicate female ordinands
It is not lightly that the Apostolic Johannite Church voices its views on the action of other churches.
The Apostolic Johannite Church, being a participant in Apostolic stewardship of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, is mindful always to respect the rights of other Churches to self-determination and governance in accordance with their own theological principles and aims, insofar as they are lawful, dignified and respectful of the rights of all human beings.
As such, it is always a matter for lengthy consideration when the Apostolic Johannite Church is asked or seeks to comment on the affairs of another Church.
In a statement released twelve days ago in L’Osservatore Romano, H.Em. William Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reaffirmed the Roman Catholic position on women’s ordination originally stated earlier by the Bishop of Rome, His Holiness, John Paul II in a 1994 letter entitled Ordination Sacerdotalis.
The position itself is nothing new, however, what makes this statement particularly troubling is the outlined penalty of automatic excommunication for those women who receive ordination.
Excommunication is, as described by those who employ it, a medicinal penalty. By this it is meant to be a corrective penalty that seeks to induce those so excommunicated to correct or repent of their actions or views by attaching to the lack of the same, total exclusion from the community of the church.
The Apostolic Johannite Church feels that, in addition to the position on ordination which is theologically without merit, the penalty of excommunication is not only extreme, but spiritually and emotionally dangerous and in this case, harmful and in opposition to the pastoral responsibility of the Church, universal and particular. There can be no healing or rapprochement when true equality is denied.
Such a penalty, if employed at all, should be reserved for much greater issues then a sincere and honest vocation to the priesthood by qualified women, which is in reality something to be treasured and celebrated.
The Apostolic Johannite Church remains committed to fostering, assisting and building up the vocation of women to Sacred Orders, not only as a matter of its own principles, but especially of the theological and ecclesial reality that it is not the Church that calls humankind to a sacred vocation, it is the Divine itself.
Whether one draws one’s reference from the words of canonical scripture through “neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ” or through the principle of the Divine present in humanity through the Divine Spark or Sacred Flame, all communities worthy to be so called, are obligated alike to the highest calling of love and inclusion.
It is our hope that the spirit of love and inclusion, which is none other than the Holy Spirit, will inspire other churches as well as our own to be a more full expression of the transforming action of the Divine, by whom we are not called to be mediators for, but co-creators with- in that very same spirit of love and inclusion.
The Patriarch of the Apostolic Johannite Church