I’ve been attending a small Episcopal church in my area lately. This Sunday’s service was led by a deacon (which is what they call a person who has graduated from the Episcopal seminary program—they serve as a deacon for a year or two, and then are ordained as a priest. Correct me if I’m wrong, as I’m very new to everything in the Anglican communion). The deacon was a woman.
I do not remember a time when I did not know that “women weren’t allowed to be pastors.” The church I grew up in was a conservative fundamentalist “Bible church,” closely resembling Calvinist-slanting Baptist flavor, if I had to describe it. Women were allowed to be active, but only so much. For example, we had an amazing worship leader who was a woman, clearly gifted and called for the task…but on Sunday mornings, she stood off to one side, still obviously leading, and a man stood at the main microphone, singing slightly off-key, so as to keep God pleased. Women are not allowed to lead men, not even when singing.
You would think that spending the total of my thirty-three years in that kind of environment, that a woman leading a congregation would be something I would have a hard time with (or at least, REALLY notice, like, maybe stare incredulously at for awhile instead of focusing on the responsive reading). I was surprised at what actually happened. Because what actually happened was that I forgot all about it, and so did my kids—if they even noticed at all. It was only after the service, talking to my friend on the phone, that I really thought about the fact that this was the first time I’ve ever been in a service led by a woman.
She was obviously called to do what she was doing, much like the music leader of my childhood. It just felt right to have her there. There was nothing to stare at—she was obviously gifted and responding to her position felt completely normal. It would have felt silly to have a man standing up there as a figure head, to keep God happy, while she spoke and while she led the Lord’s Supper—just as it always felt odd to have an “un-called” man up front singing, off-rhythm and off-key, while the woman beside him was clearly leading and clearly supposed to be.
Sometimes something “does not seem right” simply because it is not familiar, that is, it is new. But Jesus will say, “See, I make all things new.”
Something new is not automatically right for being new, but it also is not automatically wrong. We need to assess things rightly.
Molly,
My experience is identical to yours. At this point, I would sin against the Holy Spirit if I said that God cannot teach me and proclaim God’s Word to me in the context of communal worship through the ministry of an ordained female presbyter.
However, the vast majority of Christians have not had that kind of experience. Even if they have benefited from the gift-based (not office-based) preaching ministry of women, they continue to have reservations about allowing women to be ordained.
For example, all Catholics recognize the teaching authority of female figures like Mother Theresa and Chiara Lubich, but neither of them ever gave the homily in a worship service, a task delegated to a member of an all-male priesthood.
I heard Chiara teach from Scripture for an hour straight at Rocca di Papa in Italy (the Pope’s summer residence) before an audience of thousands with many bishops and priests in attendance. Our attention was rapt and reverent. She was a great expositor of the Bible, a modern saint who gave all for, in the words of the movement, Gesu’ abbandonato (Jesus forsaken on the cross, whom they see in all individuals).
But Chiara could not have given the homily during Mass, nor did she desire to. The Church in her wisdom nevertheless found a way for her to minister to far more people in a non-parish context.
In the same way, in the NT and early Church, there are documented cases of women who served as apostles (itinerant ministers sent out), prophetesses, and so on, but no solid evidence for female presbyters.
Christians are going to disagree about female presbyters for the foreseeable future. I wish both sides would demonstrate more humility than is often the case.
John wrote: “In the same way, in the NT and early Church, there are documented cases of women who served as apostles (itinerant ministers sent out), prophetesses, and so on, but no solid evidence for female presbyters.”
There is evidence for female elders, so either John is not aware of it or he does not find it “solid”. I encourage everyone to investigate the evidence for themselves and reach their own conclusions.
Don,
Please provide the evidence of which you speak.
“I forgot all about it.”
THAT is just as it should be. Hooray!