Wednesday 28 November 2012

Lesbians in the Church

As the penultimate post to my blog, i felt it would be a nice idea to end with a discussion of lesbians within the church.

There are many different forms of Christianity, but i have chosen to focus on the main branches, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant. 

Catholic Church

Traditionally, the catholic church does not allow women to serve as priests. Women in the Catholic church may serve as nuns. There are very no reports available of lesbian nuns, perhaps because nuns ma keep their sexuality quiet in order to continue as a nun.

Recently, there has been a a calling for women to be ordained as priests in the Catholic Church.  So the issue of lesbian women within the Catholic church may arise sooner than expected.


Anglican Churches

Women can be ordained in the Anglican Churches and many are. There is also no issues surrounding openly lesbian Anglican priests.  Women being ordained in the Anglican churches has  lead to the recent issue of women Bishops, which was recently rejected in the UK. recently rejected. This article also explains how in 1992, women were allowed to be ordained in the Anglican Churches. However, this is just in England, and in America, the first Anglican Lesbian female bishop was recently appointed.
First lesbian bishop to be consecrated by Anglican church in America

Above is a photo of Assistant Bishop of Los Angeles Mary Glasspool. The first openly lesbian female bishop in America and in fact in the entire Anglican church. You can read more about her ordination here.

Protestant Church

The protest church has had many women priests and bishops for a number of years. Protestant churches have been the most open about LGBT priests out of all of Christianity. Recently the Presbyterian church voted to allow LGBT clergy, the last of the Protestant churches to do so.


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