Conciencia y sacerdocio femenino en Ia Iglesia de Inglaterra

Abstract

In 1993 an Ecclesiastical Law, a canon of the Church of England, allowing women to exercise priestly functions came into being. The Priest Measure includes a conscience clause which bishops, clerics and laity, may take. This clause applies not only to ideological concerns which may arise, but to the scruples of conscience of those who sincerely believe in the tradition of millennia that reserving ordination to men constitutes the deposit of faith, following Christian directives and in particular the Catholic tradition. The historical roots, which have delineated the doctrinal and disciplinary elements of the Church of England, are examined. An analysis of the legislative system is made. This reveals that we are dealing with a hybrid: that the conscience clause of the Priest Measure is « Mixed ». Those who take the clause demonstrate their expressed reserve with respect to the damage to the truths of faith produced by the new order within the Church. Similarly they express reserve with regard to the State, since the Priest Measure has the rank of Statute Law and forms part of English Law having been approved by the Crown in Parliament.