Thread by @fortonchurch

OK, I admit it, I am still cross about the Lambeth Conference thing; but seriously:

What is this patronising tripe?

(Angry thread incoming.)

https://twitter.com/JustinWelby/status/1101154346744598529

1. There is no such thing as "women priests." The phrase doesn't even make grammatical sense. If you're after an adjective, the word is "female." If you are trying to suggest that "women priests" are some kind of different species from "men priests," well... 🤷🏽‍♂️

2. I and my sister priests are not "extraordinary blessings." We are ordinary blessings, just like our male colleagues. There are some excellent female priests, undoubtedly some terrible ones, and most of us are just mediocre, trying to do the best we can. (cont...)

... To suggest that we are "extraordinary" has an unpalatable twinge of inspo-porn about it. "Ooh look, a black person getting a degree; a disabled person having a job; a woman being a priest. How extraordinary!" Just, no.

3. It's lovely that you're having a special service in Lambeth Palace, no doubt with some prominent female priests and bishops on the guest list, but how does that celebrate, affirm or help me or my sisters working away on the ground? (cont...)

I wasn't invited, nor was anyone else I know. Are you sending us a special bookmark to celebrate our ministry, or perhaps a nice carriage clock or decanter? Or maybe even just an email or letter? No, thought not. (cont...)

...So I have to ask, who or what are you really celebrating? Is it ordinary priests in parishes & chaplaincies up and down the country? Or is it your own magnanimity that in 1992 you finally decided to listen to what the Spirit has been saying to the Churches since c.33 CE?

4. I know you're trying, and I don't want to be that person who just shouts angrily from the back of a deanery synod, so if you really want to celebrate women's ordained ministry in the CofE, here are some humble suggestions from a very unimportant female parish priest:

a) Pay women properly. Sort out the whole mess over stipends for clergy couples, because when you only pay a full stipend to one out of two, guess which gender usually suffers? Ditto jobshares and who gets to be named as Incumbent.

b) Abide by the 5 guiding principles and honour "traditionalist" priests and parishes (ahem, and bishops). Most of them are on the side of the angels, and backing them into a corner helps nobody, and just gives the misogynist minority more of a voice.

c) Do more to support women of colour, disabled women and working class women, and for God's sake give LGBTQIA* people some basic level of justice and inclusion. Because it's 2019, and #intersectionality has been a thing for a while now.

d) Actually tackle the corrosive culture of sexism, toxic masculinity and dick-swinging which still exists in every level of the Church. Don't try to tell us that fight has been won just because we're ordained. We know it hasn't. We live it daily, and it's exhausting.

5. Oh, and lastly:
What's with that photograph? There are over 5,000 female priests in the Church of England. Could you seriously not find a single image of one with which to illustrate your tweet? Because nothing says "we celebrate you" like complete invisibility. 🤦🏽‍♂️