Former Archbishop Carey Says He Looks Forward to Women Bishops

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey said in an interview that the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England ranked among his greatest achievements in his 11 years in office. Yet he added that the decision was accompanied by the highest and lowest moments of his tenure when he realized the stress it caused for many people in the church.

“There were a large number of people who were very, very distressed and I felt that the Church of England handled that particularly well,” he said in an interview with Martha Linden. “We rejoiced and celebrated with the ordination of women but there were people, for varying reasons--some of them theological, some of them were ecumenical--who felt they could not agree with it.”

Carey said that he had “no theological problems with the ordination of women as bishops. The Former Archbishop Carey Says He Looks Forward to Women Bishops moment you ordain women as priests then you are opening the way.”

When asked about the low points in his career, he mentioned the serious drop in the value of the church's assets and added that the genocide in Rwanda had posed one of the worst problems of his tenure. On the difficult issue of homosexuality, Carey said that he took a “traditionalist” line but believes that the church needs to “enter into the experience” of homosexual people and to continue the debate.

Carey said that he would like to be remembered as a Christian leader who was “excited by God” and who believed that the good news of Jesus Christ could change lives. He hopes that the Church of England has become more open and that the Alexandria Declaration, signed by interfaith leaders in the Holy Land, would be seen as one of his outstanding achievements.