Ordination of Women
‘Can Jesus be preached in the whole world without the institutional church? Can molten gold be carried from place to place in anything but crucibles of iron and steel? (Naumann)’ This image of the Church as a crucible transporting molten gold captures its secondary role in Christianity alongside its service of love, truth and empowerment in Jesus Christ. Charismatics like Naumann are in that flow of the Spirit alongside feminists whose courageous action has challenged male dominance within the institutional crucible in recent years. The crucible analogy captures something of why Christianity is content to retain antiquated institutions as its main concern is not on the carrier but on its effective instrumentality. Crucibles are of not so sightly, tough iron and when in use our eyes are drawn not to them but to the splendour of what they carry. When they crack, though, they prove useless. This analogy may help explain the best aspect of resistance to the ordination of women in the great