11PRIESTESSES IN THE CHURCH?I SHOULD LIKE BALLS INFINITELY BETTER', SAID CAROLINE Bingley, `if they were carried on in a
11
PRIESTESSES IN THE CHURCH?
I SHOULD LIKE BALLS INFINITELY BETTER', SAID CAROLINE Bingley, `if they were carried on in a different manner ... It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day.' `Much more rational, I dare say,' replied her brother, `but it would not be near so much like a Ball.'1
These remarks are not intended as a contribution to the criticism of Pride and Prejudice. They came into my head when I heard that the Church of England'-
words Ecce ancilla;3
she is united in nine months' inconceivable intimacy with the eternal Word; she stands at the foot of the cross.}
But she is absent both from the Last Supper'
and from the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost.° Such is the record of Scripture. Nor can you daff it aside by saying that local and temporary conditions condemned women to silence and private life. There were female preachers. One man had four daughters who all `prophesied', i.e. preached.'
As the State grows more like a hive or an ant-hill it needs an increasing number of workers who can be treated as neuters. This may be inevitable for our secular life. But in our Christian life we must return to reality. There we are not homogeneous units, but different and complementary organs of a mystical body. Lady Nunburnholme has claimed that the equality of men and women is a Christian principle."
for us. But it is an old saying in the army that you salute the uniform not the wearer. Only one wearing the masculine uniform can (provisionally, and till the Parousia) 9