Here goes...

We start and end each day with prayer We teach our children to pray We read the Scriptures daily We publicly confess our failures to each other & to God weekly We share bread & wine together when we meet We meet together with our local community of fellow Christians  We work hard, for God, not for our employers We give away a proportion of our income, often 10% or more We do not swear We do not get drunk We don't do drugs but experience the energy of the Holy Spirit We remain faithful to our wives and husbands We encourage those who are not married to stay celibate and develop deep friendships We try to meet the needs of the poor as far as we are able We support other Christians elsewhere in the world We try to share our faith with whoever is willing to listen We honour our dead with burial in hope of Resurrection We try to be honest in all our dealings We look for ways to love our neighbour as ourselves W...

The debate on women Bishops often follows familiar tracks. On the one side there is the argument from equality or justice. Men and women are and should be equal; therefore they should have equal rights to posts within society and within the Church. There is therefore no reason why women should not be ordained bishops, as they can do the job just as well as men. On the other side there is the complementarian case. This starts from the position that men and women are different and ‘complementary’ to each other. The argument is then often used to suggest that it is appropriate to reserve some roles for men and others for women. This usually ends up with denying the possibility of women being ordained bishops, or even priests or preachers. Does complementarianism always lead to a denial of the validity of female church leadership? I want to argue that when you take complementarianism seriously (mind you, I don’t really like the term - I want to suggest another which I will come on to i...