Over at his blog 42 my friend Dave is talking about the New Frontiers stance on the place of women in the church, another friend Pam recounts a recent experience in an interview where bias against her as a woman was thinly veiled...
Again and again we are told that we are making a fuss when we bring up the issue of gender and leadership in the church, but again and again women in leadership meet obstacles (and dare I say it they are usually men).
Obviously my own denomination has no problem with women in leadership, my Superintendent Minister is a woman, women are District Chair's and this year both the President and Vice-President of Conference are women, and I have no doubt that like me they find that on occasions their voices are dismissed, in fact worse, they are dismissed not because they are incapable or incompetent, but because of their gender.
Bias against women in leadership can make ecumenical relationships very difficult, a previous minister in my position was treated extremely rudely by folk at a joint service, one woman came up to the communion rail as if to receive communion looked her in the face told her she should not be there and walked off. In the same village I was recently assisting at a funeral with the Anglican Priest and was told by another parishioner that I had no place in his church. That said I am welcomed in two of the other villages I work with as the reception for women in leadership is not consistent, even within my own inclusive and egalitarian denomination it is not impossible to meet with folk who support male headship!
So what to do? Well frankly I choose to simply get on with it, the Methodist Church has recognised my call to Presbyteral Ministry just as it recognises the call of women to all forms of leadership within the church. With this affirmation and support and by the grace of God I seek to minister to those who will accept the ministry I offer. I firmly believe that if my calling is valid that it will produce good fruit:
Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them. (Matthew 7: 16-20)
In the places where I am not received I will not push or argue to be accepted, I will simply move on, for I have plenty of other things to do, as Dave rightly points out if I took to ranting about unfairness and inequality I would be heard by those who support me and dismissed by those who don't, but that does not mean that the issue is not relevant or important. Like Pam I have been a member of a church where women were not encouraged to be leaders, I have been told I am stealing my husband's ministry, that I should bake cakes rather than preach, that I am harming my family, the list goes on, and those are not small obstacles to overcome, the undermine a God given call and can make it difficult to step into.
For women within the denominations where male headship is taught and practised this may or may not be an issue, some (it seems) happily and even gladly accept the teaching, but others are clearly oppressed by it, and it seems odd to me that a woman can be, for example, a Headteacher but will not be allowed to speak in church on anything other than "women's issues". Then of course there comes the question: what are women's issues? Well one particular church I attended in Texas concentrated a Bible Study on Esther's beauty treatments and special food almost completely ignoring the remainder of the book! The point being made was that we should spend time making ourselves beautiful for, and therefore acceptable to our husbands! I did not go back to that Bible Study group...
So what can I say? Where there are women who are feeling oppressed by and questioning teaching about male headship, I cannot be silent. To be told it is a sin to ask questions is no small matter, to have your voice dismissed and silenced is to suffer abuse, and perhaps especially so when that abuse comes from other women! So I have to say that I believe that the teaching of New Frontiers on this issue IS WRONG, I do not find support for this position in Scripture, and where folk point to specific teaching they almost always take the teaching out of context. New Frontiers are not alone however, we must not dismiss the struggles in the Anglican Church nor in many other denominations when it comes to the issue of women in leadership....
I could go on, but I have many other things to do today, such is the life of a woman in leadership...
