THE NATION; Even for Ordained Women, Church Can Be a Cold Place

IN the business world, women often complain about "the glass ceiling," that invisible barrier that impedes their progress up the corporate ladder. In the religious world, women call it "the stained glass ceiling," a barrier that many contend is thicker, more opaque and less permeable.

The stained glass ceiling, they say, has kept them from the top jobs in the church and often from the pulpit itself. Some add that it has also kept churches from recognizing their special needs as women.

In the last few weeks there have been some notable cracks in the stained glass ceiling. The Anglican churches in England and Australia voted to depart from centuries of tradition and accept women as priests. The churches joined 12 of the 28 self-governing Anglican bodies, including the Episcopalians in the United States, that ordain women.

In the United States, a more ambiguous event took place when the American bishops of the Roman Catholic Church decided not to adopt a pastoral letter on women that they had labored on for nearly a decade. Proponents of women's ordination rejoiced because the discarded letter included an affirmation of Vatican teaching that only men can be ordained.

"This is more than just a great time for women," said Ruth McDonough Fitzpatrick, the national coordinator of the Women's Ordination Conference, based in Fairfax, Va. "It is a great time for the church."

But other Catholics, like Helen Hull Hitchcock, said that Ms. Fitzpatrick was seriously misreading the bishops' actions. "She's just trying to coattail on the Anglican project," said Mrs. Hitchcock of the St. Louis-based Women for Faith and Family, which opposes the ordination of women. "To see this as an opening to women's ordination is a serious misreading."

The debate over the ordination of women has also proven to be an opportunity for a reassessment among the numerous Protestant churches that have ordained women for decades. "The prejudice against women doesn't end with ordination," said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which represents 32 denominations, most of which ordain women. Secondary Positions

Dr. Campbell noted that many women ordained as Protestant clergy find that they are hired as assistant or associate pastor but are not promoted to senior positions. Many languish in hospital chaplaincies where they feel they are not putting to use much of what they learned in seminary. Some women rabbis report similar obstacles.

As an experienced ecumenist, Dr. Campbell stopped short of telling the Catholics what to do. The Catholics are not members of her council, but nine Orthodox denominations that do not ordain women are part of the ecumenical group.

"I think we are living in a time when the possibilities for women being taken seriously are being expanded," she said. "And we have to recognize that that won't always result in ordination."

When the Anglican bishops in England decided on Nov. 11 that, in their judgment, God wanted women to be priests, the Vatican fired off a critical response, saying that the move posed "a grave obstacle" to the long-sought goal of reconciliation between the denominations.

On Nov. 18, America's 300 Catholic bishops met in Washington to consider the fourth and final draft of the women's pastoral letter. The letter, the bishops' highest form of teaching document, had been buffeted for years by the left and the right.

The liberals were unhappy because, among other reasons, the letter had gone from a first draft that endorsed a study of the role of women as deacons -- an ordained position just short of the priesthood -- to a final draft that endorsed the teaching of the church that women cannot serve in ordained roles.

The conservatives were unhappy because the letter, even in revision, did not condemn "radical feminists" and endorsed introducing liturgical language that is inclusive of both men and women.

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, the editor of Commonweal, a liberal, lay-edited Catholic magazine, said that she was happy to see the demise of the letter because, over its history, it "turned from the concerns of women to the concerns of the Vatican."

But Sister Sara Butler, an associate professor at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., who was a consultant to the bishops committee that drafted the letter, said that the pressure for change did not come from the Vatican, but from Catholic women, who "wanted a clearer explanation of how the church can proclaim women as fully equal on the one hand and continue to reserve priestly ordination for men."

Those who support church teaching explain that since Jesus had only men as apostles, only men can serve as priests. They also say that since Jesus and the church are described as being in a spousal relationship, with Jesus as the bridegroom and the church as the bride, only a man can represent Jesus in the mass.

Advocates of women's ordination are quick to reply that, employing the same logic, the church should teach that only Jews should be priests, since all of Jesus' disciples were Jews.

Conservatives, however, believe that the change will never come about. At the bishop's meeting in Washington, Auxiliary Bishop Austin B. Vaughan of New York said: "In the year 2000, 20000 or 200000000, there will still be a Catholic Church and it will still have an all-male clergy. A woman priest is as impossible as for me to have a baby."

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on November 29, 1992, on Page 4004006 of the National edition with the headline: THE NATION; Even for Ordained Women, Church Can Be a Cold Place. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe