Hi, I’m Deacon
For the last three years my church time has been divided between my LDS ward and the Christchurch Cathedral where I have a choral scholarship to sing with the Cathedral choristers. The choristers sing the Choral Eucharist and Evensong throughout the week. On Sundays I attend church services three times, once at my ward, and twice at the Cathedral. It’s busy, but my scholarship pays for my school tuition at the Cathedral Grammar School.
When I first started with the choir I was really surprised at how many women priests there were in the Cathedral community. The Christchurch Diocese Bishop is a woman, the late Dean of the Cathedral, our school chaplain as well as many of the lay clergy are women. Girls also have a busy life in the cathedral and get to perform sacred service without question.
But as I have become used to seeing women in those positions THAT now seems right and normal. I have come to respect these women as ordained ministers who are important to the life of the Cathedral.
What doesn’t seem normal now is going to my LDS services and seeing only men perform priesthood service. It just doesn’t feel right and it doesn’t feel fair. I think my mother would make a great bishop, and there are girls in my ward who would like to be able to pass the sacrament but they aren’t allowed to. I can’t understand it, particularly when the women priests and girls in my Cathedral community who conduct the services, bless the Eucharist, preach the sermon, and bless the congregation are doing such an awesome job.
I believe that women should be ordained.