Women and Ecclesiology - bibliography included

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Janet Crawford

Its central focus was on issues of "community", based on the belief that the church's unity must include both women and men in true mutual partnership. This focus on inclusive community in the church widened the theological debate on church unity which traditionally had been concerned with such topics as baptism, eucharist and ministry.(12)

The Community study lasted four years, culminating in an international conference held at Sheffield, England, in 1981. Sheffield did not produce a text representing theological convergence, and the recommendations from the consultation raised heated debate when they were presented to the WCC central committee. Significant ecclesiological challenges emerging from the study included questions about the structures of the church, about how power and authority were exercised and by whom. The question of power and exclusive leadership inevitably brought up the controversial questions of the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate. Although there was no agreement on the answers to these questions, at Sheffield they were clearly, and often painfully, articulated.

Baptism, eucharist and ministry

At its meeting in Lima, Peru, in 1982 the Faith and Order commission agreed to publish Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.(13) This text, representing significant theological convergence on issues which had traditionally caused division among Christian churches, was the culmination of over fifty years of work by Faith and Order. Interestingly, the last stage of this work had coincided with the CWMC study: the commission meeting at Lima received the final report on the Community study. How far had the insights and perspective of the Community study already informed the convergence text on the "classical" ecumenical theological issues of baptism, eucharist and ministry? How much did the "unity" text reflect "community" issues? How much had women's insights and perspectives contributed to this major work of Faith and Order?

Francine Cardman and Mary Tanner are among those women theologians who have commented that the BEM text reflects little engagement with the Community study. In the words of Cardman:

   The full impact of the hope for new community has yet to make itself felt
   on the classical agenda of Faith and Order. One of the most significant
   things to notice about both BEM and the beginnings of the reception process
   is the remarkable lack of attention to either the Community study or
   women's concerns.(14)

Faith and Order commission member Mary Tanner, while expressing general agreement with Cardman, argued that:

   It was only at Lima that the challenges of the Community study to the
   classical agenda began to be articulated clearly for the first time. Only
   at Lima did the justifiable cries of brokenness give way to recognizably
   ecclesiological challenges ... The different methodologies, the different
   time scales, made it hard for the full impact of the challenges of the
   Community study to baptism, eucharist and ministry to be felt, let alone to
   be reflected in a text which had been maturing for so many years.(15)