Sue Fairley
Women
In Ministry
Ms Sue Fairley, Ed.D. (Griffith
University),
is the Principal of Trinity Theological College in the Uniting Church in
Queensland, Australia
Cultural
images do not change easily, especially those weighted with the aura of sacred
tradition.
(Carroll, Hargrove and Lummis, 1983:ix)
If there is one sacred tradition that is heavily
weighted with the “aura of sacred tradition”, it must surely be leadership within
the church and whether women should be part of that leadership – especially in
the ordained ministry.
The distribution of positions of formal leadership
in the church has become the focus of concern for many women in recent
decades. Women have sought – and in
some cases obtained – access to the ordained ministry, a leadership position
occupied almost entirely by men during most of church history.
Pentecostal and Charismatic
women often demonstrated a biblical recovery of women’s leadership in ministry,
both as individuals and also in shared ministry leadership either with a
husband or in a team. Aimee Semple
McPherson led the largest pentecostal church in the world in the 1920s, built
the 5,000 seat Angelaus Temple, founded the Foursquare denomination, and raised
huge financial and material support for people during the depression and World
War II. Kathryn Kuhlman pioneered a new
era in healing evangelism from the 1950s.
Janet Lancaster, known affectionately as Mother Lancaster, the first
Pentecostal pastor in Australia, founded Good News Hall in Melbourne and
published Good News for 25 years from 1910. Women have pioneered church planting and leadership in missions
for over a century, including in Pentecostal missions.
Pentecostal/Charismatic
attitudes
To pick up the perspective of
Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity I would like to refer to an unpublished
report that Susan Hyatt presented to Hyatt International Ministries in Dallas,
Texas in March 2001. She suggests that
there is no uniform trend in terms of where women in Pentecostal/Charismatic
Christianity are heading. Some
Pentecostal/Charismatic women are embracing a traditional, subordinate
role.
But many others are unwilling to be disobedient to the Holy Spirit by
obeying the dictates of distorted Christianity. We are discovering that Jesus taught the equality of men and
women in every respect, including substance and value, privilege and
responsibility, function and authority.
We are uncovering the truth of biblical equality and we are proclaiming
it far and wide by every possible means.
Nevertheless, we are not driven by such a cause; rather we are seeking
to be led by the Spirit in all we do.
Hyatt then shared her own experience as a
Pentecostal/Charismatic American woman:
I enjoy unfettered freedom
and opportunity to advance the truth of biblical equality. Pentecostal/Charismatic women know in their
hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit that they are equal with men in terms of
substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority. However, because of cultural and religious
baggage, most do not know this truth in their heads. This discrepancy between head and heart is the cause of many
struggles for Pentecostal/Charismatic women.
My job is to give the biblical truth that brings harmony between the
heart and the head. My book In the Spirit we are Equal presents an
historical and biblical argument for gender equality. Others are also advancing this truth among Pentecostal/Charismatic. For example, the leading periodical for
women in the movement in America is Spirit-Led
Women. You will notice a recent
lead article “Ten Lies the Church has told Women” by a leading male
Pentecostal/Charismatic editor and writer Lee Grady. This is an example of an encouraging partnership that is
developing amongst some Pentecostal/Charismatic men and women to bring about
biblical equality for women.
In general we are seeing two
importance advances. Slowly we are
seeing a release from gender-defined roles for women to gift-defined
living. And we are seeing a greater
sense of egalitarian partnership between men and women. We are seeing an increase in Pentecostal/Charismatic
women taking leadership positions in various areas such as communications and
the arts, education (including
theological education), business and technology, law and government. Pentecostal/Charismatic women are also
increasing their influence in dealing with domestic abuse, pastoral counselling
and medical concerns (Hyatt 2001).
The Uniting Church in Australia has practised
women’s ordination since its inception in 1977. Acceptance of women’s ordination is, in fact, one of the “bases
of union”, indicating that congregations will be accepted into the denomination
only if they endorse women’s ordination.
Persons being ordained within the Uniting Church must also accept that
principle.
However, other denominations are still debating the
issue and it is causing a great deal of controversy. Before I deal with some of the issues which face women in
ministry today, I will explore some of the issues that have been identified in
the literature.
The first issue is leadership and gender. In
the past two decades the struggle to clarify the foundations for effective
leadership in the church has been greatly complicated by the overlay of
gender. When social scientists write
about differences between men and women, popular culture presumes that these
can be translated into gender-based leadership differences. The social science writings by scholars such
as Mary Belenky and Carol Gilligan have focussed on the ways in which women
differ from men in modes of understanding, psychological development, career
paths, and frameworks for ethical decision-making. For many it is a relatively simple leap to presume that
gender-based leadership differences exist.
From that assumption they then work to develop gender-based theories of leadership.
Roels (1997) has explored a variety of gender-based
theories of leadership and she believes that we “limit the flexibility of our
responses to changing circumstances when we, first of all, label leadership
styles as female or male…Every leader, whether male or female should be
encouraged to build a full range of leadership strategies and responses…Both
male and female leaders must struggle to find a biblical vision for leadership
that diligently avoids the pitfalls of gender-based leadership (p.53). This biblical vision is expressed in
Scripture passages such as 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul identifies
administrative ability as a specific spiritual gift which is not restricted by
gender.
A second significant issue is the controversy
over women’s ordination which came to the fore in the last half of
the twentieth century. This has
occasioned increasing questions have to do with women’s roles, female
character, and sexuality. However, it
was not always like that. Women’s
leadership in Christianity is a dramatic and complex story.
Jesus himself challenged the social convention of
his day and addressed women as equals.
Many women were prominent members of his group. During the first and second centuries, when
congregations met in homes, women were prominent as leaders. However, by the third century, the processes
of institutionalisation gradually transformed the house churches, with their
diversity of leadership functions, into a political body presided over by a
monarchical bishop. This spelled the
beginning of the end for women in church leadership.
Over the next two centuries, the legitimacy of
women’s leadership roles was fiercely contested. Opponents of women clergy appealed to a gender ideology that
divided society into two domains – the polis
(city), a male domain – and the oikos
(household), a female domain. This
system gave a great deal of power to women in the household while attempting to
segregate them from public, political life.
This meant that women exercising leadership in churches were usurping
male prerogatives. As the church became
increasingly institutionalised during the third and fourth centuries, these
arguments carried greater weight (Torjesen, 1993).
Understanding why and how women, once leaders in the
Jesus movement and in the early church, were marginalised and scapegoated as
Christianity became the state religion is crucial if women are to reclaim their
rightful, equal place in the church today.
As the architectural space in which Christians
worshipped became a more public space, and as the models for leadership were
drawn increasingly from public life, women’s leadership became more
controversial. Because the
public-versus-private gender ideology restricted women’s activities in public
life, the new leaders of the church were not as comfortable with women’s
leadership in the churches.
From the fourth century to the twelfth century
councils struggled to impose celibacy on the clergy. As Christianity became a state religion and adopted the attitudes
toward gender roles of Greco-Roman society, fewer women held church offices. During the medieval period the papacy’s
struggle to assert its authority over the clergy let to a particularly perverse
and destructive construction of female sexuality. Through the mechanism of the Inquisition a theory of sexuality
was created that demonised sexuality be attributing the power of sexuality to
demons. The resulting persecution fell
more heavily on women than on men (Torjesen, 1993).
The struggle to impose celibacy on the clergy took
more than six centuries! By the
sixteenth century there was widespread consensus that the monastic system,
which had formed a basic structural element of medieval society, had become
corrupt. There was widespread
disillusionment with monastic life, but out of this disillusionment there
evolved a new theology of sexuality.
Its most colourful proponent was Martin Luther, who initiated the German
Reformation in the early 1500’s with a series of tracts addressed to the common
people.
Luther’s argument was based on Genesis 1:27 which
states that male and female were created in the image of God. If God created the bodies of male and
female, then the body is good because it is a bearer of God’s image. And if the body is good, then sexuality is
good (Schick, 1958). When Luther
reflected on Genesis 1:28, God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply”, he
understood that not only was sexuality good, but, more than that, it was a
divine ordinance. Therefore, Luther
argued, vows of celibacy were contrary to the will of God and priests should be
allowed to marry.
In the end, Luther’s ideas on marriage and child
rearing led to the formation of a new denomination and the split from the Roman
Catholic Church. The teachings of the
Reformers on sexuality were radical and liberating for women. However, marriage was still seen as
patriarchal and women were still deemed inferior to man by nature. When the Protestant reformers, (as they came
to be known), abolished monasteries, they enshrined in its place the sanctity
of marital sexuality. The new ideal of
womanhood became domestic womanhood.
The authority and the autonomy of the nun following the religious
vocation were undermined. The only true
religious role open to women of the Reformation was as a helpmate to a man
(Torjesen, 1993).
The reaffirmation of sexuality by the reformers did
not restore women to a position of equality with men. It would take many more centuries for this inequality to be
challenged. In fact, it was not until
the 1960’s and 70’s that many of these issues resurfaced and, for the first
time, were really challenged. Why did
it occur then, and why did so many women choose to enter the ordained ministry
as well as many other traditionally male occupations?
Carroll et. al. (1983) suggest that: “What made the
1970’s watershed years was the occurrence of major social and cultural
shifts following World War II,
especially during the 1960’s, making it possible for women to consider (or
press for) ordained ministerial status as a way of responding to God’s call”
(p.8). It is hard to believe that only
in the 1970’s did significant numbers of women feel that they were called by
God to be ordained. More likely, many
women down through the years have experienced a call to the ministry, but have
found the opportunity to respond by becoming ordained blocked to them. When ordination was not possible, many of
these women expressed their calling to ministry as lay volunteers or in the
church-related occupations that allowed women to participate.
Not only has the climate changed to make it possible
for women to consider these traditionally all-male professions, but there has
also been a major shift in attitudes about the female role. Prior to the 1970’s, and especially
in the 1950’s and 60’s, a woman’s role was to be a good wife and mother. Now it is totally acceptable for women to
have both careers and families.
A final major shift that has made it possible for
more women to enter the ordained ministry is the sharply declining birth rate. Since
the early 1960’s this has allowed women the freedom to explore career options
that childrearing responsibilities previously precluded. This has meant that many women pursue
ministry studies in their mid to late thirties and forties.
However, the shift that has allowed women to respond
to a call to ordained ministry does not guarantee that other clergy will accept
women into the profession. Neither does
it guarantee that they will experience theological education in the same way as
their male colleagues.
Getting denominations to accept the ordination of
women was one thing but changing the way women experienced theological
education was a different matter. This
is another significant issue. A quick
review of the literature in this field will demonstrate this. In 1980 the Cornwall Collective, composed of
women who were working in ongoing projects within theological education,
published a book titled Your Daughters
shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education, outlining
feminist criticisms of theological education and proposing some basic
revisions, including some alternative forms of theological education. The Cornwall Collective criticized
theological education for its division of theory and practice, its organization
of disciplines, its reliance on claims of “objectivity”, and its use of the
model of university education, which lack any concern for integration or
spirituality. They called for
theological education to be more holistic, more aware of its political nature,
more community oriented.
Five years later, the Mud Flower Collective produced
God’s Fierce Whimsy, a book dedicated
to “help” theological education, because the authors of the book found that
theological colleges are “arenas in which lukewarm truth and uninspired
scholarship are peddled” (p.204). The
Mud Flower Collective offers much the same analysis of theological education as
does the Cornwall Collective (Chopp, 1995).
The difference between the 1980 Cornwall Collective
and the 1985 Mud Flower Collective could be interpreted as revealing increasing
frustration at the inability to get feminist issues heard within theological
education. This increased frustration,
suggests Chopp (1995), identifies as problematic the very same issues that the
Cornwall Collective found prohibitive to good theological education. The Mud Flower Collective cites such issues
as the politics of education, the role of cultural pluralism, the standards of
excellence, the relation of theory and praxis, the role of community, the
claims of validity in scholarship, and the structure of theological reflection
as the problems for women in theological education.
Thus, the problems of women and for women in
theological education are not merely women’s historical lack of participation,
but how theological education is defined, formed and structured. Once a critical mass of women appeared in
theological education, problems of the structure, purpose, and nature of
theological education became more and more evident (Chopp, 1993).
This critical mass of women began to appear in many
theological colleges around the world in the 1980s. As Chopp (1993) points out, once the students in theological
education were white, young, and male, largely from working or middle-class
backgrounds. Raised in the church, many
aspired to serve God and become religious practitioners. Now these subjects are few and far between
in our theological colleges. Many of
the subjects today are women and men who are older and who have not been raised
in the church. Lifestyle differences,
theological pluralism, and cultural diversity are apparent in the student body
of most theological colleges.
Women in theological colleges discovered very
quickly that they were affirmed when they indicated a calling toward areas of
service that parallel those assigned to the female by Western culture, while
they were gently discouraged when they indicated they had other goals such as
the ordained ministry. It takes courage
to cross culturally established boundaries, and so many women put off “the
call” as long as possible hoping it might go away.
The Old Testament provides many examples of people
who struggled with the reality of their call to the service of God and the
nature of that call. Women can
certainly identify with that struggle.
Behind them is a long tradition of the suppression of women’s gifts, and
surrounding them sometimes is an atmosphere of questioning and suspicion. With few role models women often fight a
lonely battle.
The years spent in theological college provide an
opportunity for women to think and evaluate but not all women find that
experience a helpful one. Some women
found that on the whole, male faculty were warm and friendly, but some felt
that male faculty were patronizing. It
seems as if male faculty were more inclined to treat women seriously if they
were academically superior. There was
also concern expressed about the selection of textbooks and set readings that
tended to be mostly written by male scholars, even though in many fields now
there are renowned female scholars.
One of the most common complaints from women is the
lack of women faculty. It is still rare
to find women faculty members in teaching positions such as theology. This is true in my own experience – I am the
only female on our faculty and my area is Christian education. Some women also felt that there is not
enough being done in theological colleges to confront both men and women with
the sex stereotypes that influence their thinking and acting.
A great deal of research is being done and pressure
is mounting to make theological education a more inclusive experience.
In 1997 Kathleen Hughes was asked to present a paper
at a meeting of Theological Schools in America addressing these questions: What
changes can we expect from a program of theological studies? Is the student potential for change
boundless or is it actually quite limited?
Is it possible that in a course of studies students moves from very narrow
and rigid viewpoints to broader understandings of the tradition of the church
and so on? In considering the classroom
as the locus of conversion of a person’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviours,
values, viewpoints and perspectives, what is helpful in effecting such change?
Hughes (1997) found from her research with exiting
women students that the change that happened in them was that all had learned
to trust their own human and religious experience as valid and true. Further, they claimed that their intellects
were stretched and their powers of discernment were sharpened. “Women regularly have a difficult adjustment
to theological studies when they experience themselves as simultaneously a
subtle threat to others even while they have little personal self-confidence
that they can do theology, learn a new theological vocabulary, and so on. Each of these women said she began her
studies wondering ‘Can I do it?’” (Hughes, 1997:5).
Many of the women also indicated similar questioning
and doubt. “I am struck by what an
awesome responsibility it is and wonder if I am equal to the task.” “I am
deeply grateful to the faculty for their affirmation and belief in my call.”
These women actually helped each other to accept
their own potentiality. As women
students realised that faculty respected them and their opinions, and fellow
male students were willing to dialogue with them as equals, their confidence
grew. In our college many of the women
students are actually the highest achievers.
General
issues facing women in ministry today
Let’s turn now to some of the issues that face women in ministry today as we commence this new
millennium. I would like to use a
Scripture passage as the basis for my comments. It is from Numbers 13:1-2, 17-20, 25-28.
This report of the spies to Moses is one of the
earliest “good news – bad news” stories on record. I will to use this passage to highlight some good news and some
bad news in relation to issues that women in ministry are facing. We will use the terms “milk and honey” and
“giants” to represent the good and bad news respectively.
Milk and
Honey: The land
now shows many positive aspects.
1.
Women
who have entered the ordained ministry are generally dedicated and competent
individuals who have a strong sense of calling to serve God this way. In the past many of these women would have
had to be content to serve as highly committed laity, frustrated perhaps, but
resigned to their exclusion from the ranks of the ordained.
2.
The
situation of women being a curiosity in theological colleges has changed
dramatically and most recently graduates found their experience of theological
college to be positive. That is
certainly true in my research.
3.
The
job market has improved although there are still some problems. The positive aspects deserve
highlighting. Most recent women
graduates have not found difficulty obtaining a placement and they have not
been sent to declining congregations.
4.
As
women enter parish positions they are functioning competently as pastors and
many have found that males who were not happy to have a woman minister in the
beginning have changed their attitudes once they saw that the person was
competent. Fears that having a
clergywoman would bring on decline in the congregation are not supported.
5.
Generally
lay leaders have favourable experiences when their congregation is served by a
woman pastor. This has had a spin-off
effect for other women pastors.
6.
Most
women in ministry report generally positive relationships with other male
clergy and church officials.
Giants: However, the
land is not all flowing with milk and honey.
1.
Clergywomen
still face obstacles to their full participation in the ordained ministry of
the church. In almost every instance of
“good news” we could probably find a corresponding negative note. Women are less likely than men to be
encouraged by either their parents or pastors to consider the ordained
ministry. Cultural stereotypes continue
to operate and deprive women of needed support at an important time of personal
decision making.
2.
In
relation to the job market, there are still some giants to be overcome. The resistance of some church officials to
women clergy in key leadership roles ranges from polite neutrality to refusal
to allow women to participate.
3.
There
are still some lay people who struggle to accept women clergy and if they are
the key leaders of the congregation, it can mean that a woman pastor will not
be called to that church.
4.
Single
ordained women face some particular obstacles particularly in relation to
suitable appointments. Many of the
rural congregations find it more difficult to accept a woman – let alone a
single woman. Single women clergy also
often suffer from loneliness because of the lack of support from a spouse.
5.
One
of the biggest difficulties for married women clergy is the balancing of home,
marriage and career. The temptation to
be “superwoman” is strong. Some women
feel that they have to conform to a higher set of expectations than men
do. Even in more “modern” marriages
where couples have worked to overcome traditional sex-role distinctions,
combining fulltime ministry and motherhood poses a problem for a large number
of clergywomen.
6.
Linked
with this is the problem of the spouses work commitment. Often this limits the possibilities of
placement.
7.
There
is still the persistence of sexism in the churches as well as the culture,
although now perhaps they are more subtle.
For example articles written about the ordained ministry which only use
the male pronoun; lists of successful clergy which are all male; typecasting
women into particular kinds of clergy positions.
8.
Climate
of anxiety among lay people in relation to declining membership and the future
of the church. This anxiety fosters a
resistance to any innovation which might be suspected of further endangering
the already fragile institution – women clergy are still seen by some as an
innovation.
9.
Resistance
from the male clergy – some still believe that they are the only ones who
should be ordained. The “sacredly
masculine” image of the clergy is hard to shake!
10.
The
exercise of authority – the doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers”
emphasises that ministry belongs equally to all Christians, although clergy
have special functions for which they are set apart. These functions include preaching, teaching, administering the
sacraments etc. Clergy perform their
special functions of ministry to enable laity to perform their ministry. Sometimes this can lead to a blurring of
lines of authority which makes it difficult for any clergy person, but
sometimes it is more difficult for women clergy, particularly if they have some
very strong lay people in their congregations.
11.
There
are not many appropriate female leadership models or mentors although this is
improving now that some women have been ordained for quite a long period of
time.
12.
A
challenge for Pentecostal/Charismatic women (according to Hyatt, 2001) is the
process of renewing their minds in the knowledge that they are equal with
men. Changing the mind is one of the
greatest struggles we all face. What we
think about women determines our behaviour in relation to womanhood.
How can we begin to overcome “the giants” and reach
the promised land?
I want to mention three ways in which Tillich
suggests the church has exercised leadership in social change.
1.
Silent interpenetration. Women
clergy in some denominations are now becoming what we could call a critical
mass. Their silent or not so silent
interpenetration of the church’s ordained ministry should reduce the present
inequities and overcome some of the obstacles to full acceptance of women
clergy.
2.
Prophetic criticism. Active, vocal advocates both
women and men, for full acceptance of women as ordained ministers are crucial
if the process of change is not to be interminably slow. Advocates are needed to ensure the
representation of women in positions of leadership within the
denomination.
3.
Direct political power. The
present situation of clergywomen can be considerably helped if clergywomen are
better prepared for the situations that face them as ordained pastors. Women need to understand the “land” they are
trying to occupy. They need to have a
realistic picture of what the current situation of ordained ministry is
like. This needs to include an
understanding of what the job situation for clergy is in their denomination,
what salaries are reasonable to expect, how to use the denomination system and
how it works. There is a better
understanding of power and the political process within congregations. What are appropriate leadership styles in
dealing with situations for which they are very few cultural models for women?
If these and other issues can be addressed then
women will not merely have reached the promised land of full acceptance into
ordained ministry. They will have
contributed to the quality of life in that “land” for all who occupy it.
Conclusion
Returning
to the passage from Numbers we know that the people did not occupy the land
that flowed with milk and honey for a long time because they were too afraid of
the giants that dwelt there. However,
there were two spies who were courageous enough to encourage the people to
overcome their fears – Joshua and Caleb.
We can all be like Joshua and Caleb and encourage women to enter the
promised land and with the help of the Lord to overcome whatever giants they
might meet along the way.
Susan Hyatt (2001) points the way to this promised
land:
There is no reason why, in
this era of Pentecostal/Charismatic outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, that we
should succumb to religion. We must
realise that the Spirit of God does not come to confirm that what we believe
about everything is right and that what other Christians believe is wrong. Rather, the Spirit comes to help us in our
human weakness, to empower us, to comfort us.
And the Spirit comes to guide us into all truth! That is to say, the Spirit comes to open our
understanding and to help us change the way we think.
To continue with our analogy, that may be our giant
that we need to confront. It is my
prayer that we will allow the Spirit of God to change the way we think about
ourselves as women and men so that we can think of ourselves in the same way that
Jesus did.
Carroll,
J. ed.
1997. Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools. New York: Oxford University Press.
Carroll,
J., Hargrove, B. and Lummis, A.
1983. Women of the Cloth: A New Opportunity for the Churches. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
Chopp,
R. 1995. Saving Work: Feminist
Practices of Theological Education. Louisville,
KY: Westminster/John Knox Press.
Cornwall
Collective. 1980. Your
Daughters shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education. New York: Pilgrim Press.
Hughes,
K. 1997. “Conversion of Heart and
Mind” in Theological Education 33 (2): 1-10.
Hyatt,
S. 2001. Report for Partners and
Friends of Hyatt International Ministries, (unpublished) Dallas, Texas.
Mudflower
Collective. 1985. God’s
Fierce Whimsy: Christian Feminism and Theological Education. New York: Pilgrim Press.
Roels,
S. 1997. Organisation Man,
Organisation Woman: Calling, Leadership and Culture. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Shick,
G. 1958. The Estate of Marriage in
Luther’s Works Vols.1 and 45. St
Louis, Mo: Concordia Publishing.
Torjesen,
K. 1993. When Women were
Priests. San Francisco: Harper.
Susan
Hyatt’s report, quoted in this article, is given in full in the following
article, “Women and Religions”.
© Renewal Journal #18: Servant Leadership (2001:2) www.renewaljournal.com
Reproduction is permitted so long as the copyright
acknowledgement remains intact with the text.
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