How much is the subscription?








Can men become members?



Do you have meetings near me?


What do members have to do?



Do you have paid staff?




I have heard ACW speakers on radio television how are these chosen?



Is there something I can do?

 

Why are there no women priests in the Catholic Church?














 

Women would not have been accepted as priests then, but they would be now. So why hasn't women's ordination been introduced?


 

Some people think that the early Church did have women priests, but patriarchal attitudes took over and suppressed them. How do we know that that is not correct?

 

There is no fixed subscription but producing and distributing the quarterly ACW Review costs about £8.00 a year. Usually members who can. pay about £10 a year. Members who are short of money receive the Review on request. Members who can afford it pay larger amounts to help with the Associations work.

Men join as supporters. They may not hold office or vote at the AGM. Many priests and lay men enjoy the benefits of membership

Meetings are held in London and in the North West and on occasion in other areas

Members sign up that they agree with the aims of the Association (see home page). Members are asked to say the Angelus daily.

All the members, Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and committee members  are volunteers and receive only expenses for their work for the Association.

We are frequently asked for people to contribute to radio or television programmes on controversial or topical subjects, often at short notice. We choose people who are available and competent in the appropriate topic

We could always do with help in the following areas: Articles and news for the Review, speakers or help with the website. Help at meetings, refreshments
putting away of chairs and similar straightforward jobs

The Church believes that Jesus Christ chose twelve men to provide the immediate nucleus of the group that was to continue his work after his Ascension into Heaven. He gave them specific powers that they were to exercise on his behalf: to bless and break the bread and drink the cup, in memory of him, in order that these ordinary elements of bread and wine could become his body and blood, soul and divinity. In this way, he would continue to be with them and with all who come after, until the end of time. He also gave them the amazing power to forgive (or not forgive) sins. The Church follows Christ; the bishops ordain priests and through her priests, the successors of the Twelve, does what he did, making the Church an 'ever present and ever-active reality until Christ's return.' (The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1577)

The Gospels frequently show Jesus breaking the Jewish law (on Sabbath-keeping, for instance). He kept those laws which were authentically of God, and ignored others which weren't.  Indeed, he was charged and condemned for blasphemy. Priestesses were common in the religions of antiquity, notably in Greece and Rome, as well as the Caananites, whose rites included prostitution of priestesses. So, Jesus would have been familiar with the idea of women priests. Had he wanted to ordain them, he surely would have done so.

There is no evidence that women were ordained in the Early Church, If it were true, that women priests existed, but were suppressed, it would be a terrible falsehood on which the Church Christ founded had based herself ! How could the Church of Christ live a lie for two millennia?