Old Catholic theologian Angela Berlis recalls 25 years since the first women priests were consecrated in Constance, Germany

Twenty-five years after her ordination, Angela Berlis is reflecting on the event that made her one of the first women priests in the Old Catholic Church. On 27 May 1996, Berlis and the late Regina Pickel-Bossau were consecrated as the first female priests of the Old Catholic Church in Constance. The church emphasizes the equality of all people as a principle, and Berlis said she planned to mark the anniversary, both because of the consecration itself and because the Old Catholic Church remembers her earlier ordination as a deacon on 26 November 1988.

Berlis said the Pentecost Monday service in 1996 was a large and moving occasion. Christ Church in Constance was full, and the service was broadcast to people outside the building. In the years afterward, she was often invited to speak about women’s ordination and the role of women in the church, including in Roman Catholic settings. People told her again and again that they had been present at the time. She described a strong sense that the celebration carried a meaning that extended beyond the Old Catholic Church.

Berlis said she first became involved in church youth work as a teenager and, at that time, had not considered the ordination of women. She had intended to study medicine. After a friend decided to study theology, and her Old Catholic pastor responded positively, she began to consider the question. She began theological studies in Bonn in 1981, the year the Old Catholic Synod of Bishops decided that women could be employed as theologians and spoke in favor of a permanent diaconate for women. Berlis, who was a synod member at the time, said her later ordination as a priest was, in a sense, both a completion of her studies and a new beginning.

According to Berlis, the discussion on women’s ordination began to develop slowly from the 1960s, as the role of women in society and in the churches changed. In 1976, the Old Catholic Bishops’ Conference stated that women could not be admitted to the threefold office of bishop, priest and deacon. Synods in Switzerland and Germany later voted to open the diaconate to women. In 1987, the first woman was consecrated a deacon in Switzerland. In the 1980s, the debate moved from the diaconate to the priesthood. Berlis said Old Catholics place considerable weight on arguments drawn from the early church, noting that women served as deacons in the first centuries.

Berlis said the question also affected relations with ecumenical partners and within the Utrecht Union, the wider family of Old Catholic churches. Discussions took place among individual churches and at the Bishops’ Conference, and theologians from Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox churches were invited to take part. In 1994, the German Synod of Bishops decided to admit women to the priesthood. Berlis said she was then the only woman who met the required educational conditions, and that the German church moved ahead more quickly than others. She said the member churches held opposing positions on women’s ordination, and that the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States was strongly opposed and left the Utrecht Union seven years later.

Asked whether it is painful that the Roman Catholic Church considers the consecration of women invalid, Berlis said the Roman Catholic Church cites its canon law, which excludes women from ordination. She argued that the idea that ordination is restricted to men is only one historical view, and that some medieval canonical commentaries considered whether ordination could be grounded in baptism. In her view, the Old Catholic Church also calls itself Catholic and argues in a Catholic way, including regarding office, and wants to show that the Catholic tradition is broad enough to include different theological views on the ordination of women.

Berlis currently teaches as a professor of the history of ancient Catholicism and the history of the Church in Bern. The interviewer asked how she combines this academic work with her ministry, and her answer was not part of the published interview.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)