First published in Column Eight on the 26th March, 1991
I was disappointed recently to see a former Dunedinite
burbling on about our local Bishop, Penny, saying he couldn’t recognise her authority.
In fact, he’d begun to wonder if he could recognise New Zealand in an Anglican sense
at all. (Many of us don’t recognise New Zealand any more, but it doesn’t have
anything to do with the Anglicans.)
His comments reminded me of the appalling statement made by
a Vatican gentleman – not the Pope – who proclaimed in all his patriarchal
wisdom that women could no more become priests than pigeons become spiritual.
Or something equally bombastic.
Curious that Jesus Himself didn’t find women any problem –
whoops, mustn’t bring Jesus in, this is supposed to be about Easter.
I have a theory that in another hundred years, the whole
question of whether women can be priests or not will be as dead as the dodo. Just
as the issue whether we should have slaves is.
Who in the early part of the last century would have thought
the ingrained system of slavery would ever be removed from the earth?
It only took us 1800 years of Anno Domini to rid ourselves
of slavery, so we’re doing quite well allowing women into higher positions in
the church in just under 2000 years.
I hear someone rabbiting on, ‘What about myxomatosis?’
There’s been much talk of using myxomatosis to rid ourselves
of the furry little creatures that are destroying great chunks of the land. Quite
honestly, I’d like to see some form of myxomatosis applied to the Easter bunny
and all his mates as well.
Easter’s a time of major importance, celebration-wise. I can’t
understand how the Easter bunny in any way symbolises that importance.
And while you’re tossing the Easter bunny out, throw out all
those Easter eggs too. As a symbol of what Easter is about I don’t find a
marshmallow-centred egg to be anything near solid enough.
(As a symbol of what we’ve done to this great time, however,
it’s very appropriate.)
Well, that’s disposed of slavery and eggs and women and myxomatosis
and pigeons. What are we left with? A missionary name Newbigin.
I only brought him in because he wrote about Easter in a
book I’m reading. In his writing he wrote about new beginnings. (It struck me
as odd that his name should sound so similar.)
He emphasised that Easter celebrates a time of the newest
beginnings ever known to man. But we’ve trivialised it with our eggs and
bunnies (yuk!) and made it another kiddie feast, like Christmas. (Isn’t Santa
geared towards kids more than anything?)
Easter celebrates a time when a certain man died a horrible
death. Celebrate a horrible death? Who’d want to do that? Only those who know
that this same man came back to life again. That event was the most amazing new
beginning in history.
Isn’t it interesting that the first person Jesus showed Himself
to and spoke to, after coming back to life, was a woman. She believed in His
return to life when all the men fumbled around saying she was dreaming.
(Sorry, I had to bring Him in; you can’t avoid Jesus at Easter.)
Perhaps nearly 2000 years later it’s time for another new beginning:
instead of putting women down who take on arduous roles in church leadership,
let’s begin to give them our support.
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| Christ appearing to Mary Magdelene in the Garden Painting by Correggio |
This was the first of these Columns to discuss anything to do with Christianity, specifically Jesus. Though there were other columns on the topic, they were probably relatively few. But given the secular climate of the times, it was probably something of a miracle to be able to write in this way.
As for slavery, since this column was written it’s become
clear that slavery is far from eradicated. There’s hardly a country on earth
where it’s unknown in some form: it may not be like the slavery of old, but
trafficking, forced prostitution, forced begging, organ harvesting and far more
continue unabated.
I haven't been able to track down who the Vatician spokesman was...
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