Historical and philosophical background of the women’s priesthood problem in the Anglican church

In the 20th century the issue of women’s priesthood became the key topic of discussion in many Protestant churches, and specifically in the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church had retained three degrees of priesthood and at the beginning of the 20th century was considered one of the churches closest to Orthodoxy. As a result of discussions on female priesthood the Anglican Church began to ordain women as deacons, priests and bishops, despite the fact that Scripture as well as the history of the Church do not have any examples of women’s priesthood. The development of this problem was affected not only by theological discussions in Anglicanism, but also by political and economic factors, as well as a number of philosophical doctrines developed in Western countries. An analysis of such historical and philosophical background is important for understanding the origins of the church feminism and for predicting the further development of this problem in Christian countries. This article examines three periods in the development of the church feminism in the Anglican Church: the “first wave” of church feminism until the middle of the 20th century, the “second wave” of the 1960-80s, and the third wave of feminism from the early 1990s to the present.