In 1992 in a historic move, the Church of England voted to allow women’s ordination to priesthood and in 1994 the first women priests started to be ordained. Despite much research interest, the experiences of priests who are mothers to dependent children have been minimally investigated. Based on in-depth interviews with seventeen mothers ordained in the Church, this paper will focus on how the...

Chapter 2 of Women in Ministry tries to explain why there are no women priests in Israel. Its author, an Old Testament scholar, maintains that the absence of female priests in ancient Israel cannot be used as an argument against women’s ordination. The author states that he approaches the Bible through “exegetical research.” This, he explains, means that he “will not move from a priori definiti...

Studies examining fear of falling among older adult men remain limited. The objectives of this study were to compare balance confidence in 2 age cohorts of older clergy and identify predictive determinants of balance confidence in a liturgical research initiative. Participants included 131 community-dwelling Roman Catholic priests age 60-97 yr living in religious communities in 10 mid-Atlantic ...

Considering and respecting religious beliefs and values is vital for delivering integral health care. This study describes the religious principles and guidance provided by Catholic priests on sexuality and reproduction. The oral history method was used. Interviews were carried out between August 2007 and May 2008 and were analyzed in an inductive and interpretive manner to acquire a deep focus...

OBJECTIVE To describe the oral health status of the elderly priests in Bangkok. MATERIAL AND METHOD The elderly priests aged 60 and over in Bangkok were clinically examined at Priest Hospital using methods recommended by the World Health Organization. Information on oral health behavior was obtained via questionnaires. RESULTS A totally of 714 elderly aged 60 years and above (mean = 69.5 +/...

On 5 and 6 May the BMJ held a conference in Oxford to discuss the next 30 years. By invitation, five of the participants prepared working papers, which were circulated beforehand; we print these below, together with an edited version of the discussion. A sixth paper, also prepared for the conference by Professor Rudolf Klein, appears on p 73. The sessions were chaired by Professor Klein and mem...

Two central characteristics of Catholicism in Southwest Germany were clericalism and communalism. Clericalism meant, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that German Catholics demanded that priests, especially resident priests, perform and sanctify church rituals. Communalism meant that village communes played a central role in the supervision of the rural clergy and in the o...