Sir, Susan Brooker (letter, June 10) may need to examine her Bible and indeed a biblical commentary before making assumptions regarding the interpretation of text. The passage which she claims is frequently ignored in St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians xvi, 33b-36, “women should be silent in churches”, is in the NRSV edition of the Bible in brackets, plainly because its Pauline authenticity is in doubt.

This passage is inconsistent with the passage in 1 Corinthians xi, 2-16, which expressly describes women praying and prophesying in church. It is also clear from the rest of the Pauline corpus that women took a prominent role in leading worship in the Church of St Paul’s day.

One should not make conclusions about whether women can be bishops in the Church today from what is written in Scripture alone. Careful thought, prayer, and open, honest discussion should accompany any decision about whether women bishops would be of benefit to the Church of England in the 21st century.

LIZZIE SHIPP
Ripon College, Cuddesdon
Oxford

Sir, Susan Brooker thinks that as Jesus did not choose women to be Apostles then women should not be bishops. This is problematic. Jesus did not have any Welshmen, office boys or lecturers either.

Is it possible that Jesus never imagined Christians would be so blind as to imitate the superficial and miss the profound? What is it exactly that male bishops do that women bishops can not? Where Jesus pointed at the Moon, perhaps, some people see only the finger.

DÓNAL THOMPSON
Madrid

Sir, How sad that women should continue to denigrate and deny the wish and right of women to participate fully in the religious life of their community.

When I was on the appointments committee of my Reform synagogue some 20 years ago I was in no doubt that the best candidate was a woman. Some of the women on that committee were very nervous of such an appointment. It was nonetheless made and indeed followed by another. The result was an increase in confidence among women and girls who saw an empowerment to be an equal of their male relatives in leading services and offering spiritual guidance. At present one of our young women members is a rabbinical student.

Even in Orthodox Judaism, a woman has recently been accorded rabbinical status. The amazing news is that the world has not ended. Numerous Jewish and Christian communities have now recognised this.

A woman’s wish, drive, vocation to serve her community from the front, rather than from the catering corps, can no longer be denied. Such arrogance is a product of a primitive male-dominated society and has no place in the religious life of people today.

BARRY HYMAN
Bushey Heath, Herts

Sir, Cardinal Kasper urged the Archbishop of Canterbury not to proceed towards the consecration of women bishops “without the support of the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church”. Since the support of the Catholic Church in this venture would never be forthcoming, not to mention the Orthodox Church, which would rule it out, it is rather a recondite statement.

We Catholics know from the papal encyclical of Leo XIII Apostolicae Curae that the Anglican clergy are not priests in the traditional, Christian understanding of the term. The Edwardine ordinal of 1558 abolished the Catholic priesthood in the Church of England, and since that date the Anglican episcopacy gradually became disconnected from Apostolic descent.

Consequently, without a valid priesthood there can hardly be a valid episcopacy, male or female, and the appointment of women bishops becomes something of a red herring.

GEOFFREY SMITH
Manchester

Sir, Bishop Dr John Austin Baker asserts that the Anglican Communion “already has women bishops in several provinces” (letter, June 12). So most people believe. But is this true?

New Zealand tried, but the only woman bishop retired some time ago and has not been replaced. That leaves only America and Canada, two provinces in a state of suspension from the institutions of the wider Communion. In other words, there is not a single serving woman bishop in good standing in the whole of the Anglican Communion. There may be one tomorrow, but there is not one today.

CANON NICHOLAS TURNER
Skipton, N Yorks

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