As the letters page of the Baptist Times over the last few weeks has seen discussion other the recent affirmation of the ministry and leadership of women within Baptist churches by the Baptist Union. The focus of the debate is not that the affirmation was wrong, but whether the Council can speak for all Baptists and so the usual cry of liberty for every Baptist church to determine the mind of Christ can be heard. It's interesting that this concern for liberty only appears in issues like the ministry of women. Catriona makes a lot of sense here.
Anyway, I was reading a review of Women and Ordination in the Christian Churches edited by Ian Jones, Janet Wootten and Kirsty Thorpe (T & T Clark, 2008) by Angela Shier-Jones who concludes that the book
reads as an invitation to discover the contribution of women’s ministry to the wider
life of the Church and the world-wide body of Christ whilst, at the same time, becoming more fully conscious of the nature and extent of the resistance afforded that ministry. Some books should be distributed free to all ordinands and clergy on the basis that their content is simply too important to risk not being known. This is such a book.
The only problem being that the book is only in hardback and costs £70.
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