Archbishop admits doubts over ordination of women
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
November 16, 2006

THE Church of England may have to reconsider the ordination of women priests one day, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said yesterday.

In an interview to be published tomorrow, Dr Williams admitted that the level of division over women’s ordination had tested his conviction that it was the right thing to do.

There had even been “moments” when he felt that the ordination of women priests had been wrong.

The influx of women priests into the Church of England since they were ordained in 1994 had not “renewed” the Church in any “spectacular ways”, he said. But he admitted that for the moment there was no going back and it was just a question of “containing” the resulting divisions. the rest


Church could think again over women, says Williams
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
16/11/2006

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has reopened the debate on women priests by suggesting that the Anglican Church may one day "think again" about the issue.

Speaking a week before his first official audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, Dr Williams made clear that he remained a firm supporter of women's ordination and that "practically" he did not see how the Church's position could be reversed.

But in an interview with The Catholic Herald published today, he said he could "just about envisage a situation in which, over a very long period, the Anglican Church thought about it again, but I would need to see what the theological reason for that would be". the rest