Anglican Firm as Foe of Women Priests

The Bishop of London, speaking in Orange County on Saturday, reiterated his opposition to the ordination of women as Anglican priests--a move he claims would challenge the authority of Scripture.

Bishop Graham Leonard spoke at a press conference at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in Anaheim, where he will receive an honorary degree and deliver an address at the school’s commencement ceremonies today.

John Warwick Montgomery, dean of the law school, welcomed the controversial prelate as a bulwark of “classical Christianity.” The school, which is seeking accreditation, emphasizes the integration of law and theology.

Leonard described the decision to ordain women as the action of “those who think the Gospel . . . can be modified.” The General Synod of the Church of England voted in February to make preparations to allow the ordination of women as priests and eventually as bishops.

Leonard denied reports that he would lead a breakaway church if women were ordained. But he said the church’s House of Bishops has taken the position that Anglicans who do not accept females as priests still have a right to continue to be affiliated with the church.

Leonard, the third-ranking prelate in the Anglican church, has stirred opposition in the Anglican offshoot Episcopal Church of America, which already has accepted women as priests. Last October, Leonard traveled to Broken Arrow, Okla., in a show of support for the Rev. John Pasco, a priest removed from his parish by the Oklahoma Diocese for what Pasco claims was his refusal to accept women priests.

Despite strong warnings from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Episcopal Church House of Bishops to respect the autonomy of the Episcopal Church, Leonard went to the Tulsa suburb to confirm 21 members of the parish, who were loyal to Pasco.

The bishop defended his actions, saying he had satisfied himself that the Oklahoma diocese had renounced all claims to the parish.

“I felt it my duty to go,” Leonard said, “in the hope that we’d realize there is a situation we have got to acknowledge.”