CAN A WOMAN BE A PASTOR-TEACHER?

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2007 by Hoehner, Harold W

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The role of a woman as pastor-teacher has been an ongoing topic of discussion. While in the past many have frowned on this concept, there has been a gradual change of mind in more recent times. What has caused this change? Is this change in line with Scriptures or have present cultural mores dictated this change of attitude?

I. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

First, it is helpful to become acquainted with the historical development of the leadership of women in the church. I am indebted to many people, especially to Paul K. Jewett,1 E. Margret Howe,2 Ruth B. Edwards,3 and Gary L. Ward4 for their discussion on this issue.

In early church history the bishops and the priests were always men.5 This continued through the medieval and Reformation periods, although some Reformers allowed for the possibility of deaconesses. It was not until the last two centuries that women gradually became full-fledged members of the clergy. It began in the latter part of the eighteenth century when some women started preaching in open air ministries or informal gatherings but not within the churches.6 The first woman to preach in a church (or, more correctly, a chapel) was William Booth's wife, Catherine, who continued to preach after her husband had finished, stating that the Holy Spirit had called her to share the gospel. In fact, in the regulations for the officers of the Salvation Army, William Booth thought that women should be treated as equals inside and outside the church and that women could hold the same positions as men in the church.7 As Ward writes, "In 1869, Margaret Newton Van Cott became the first female licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church (in that same year, the two major women's suffrage associations began). In 1871 the Unitarians ordained their first female minister, Celia Burleigh, in Brooklyn, Connecticut."8

It was not until after World War I that women gradually began to gain access into the work force and during that same time more Protestant churches began to ordain women ministers. In 1919 the Congregational Church in America recognized its first woman minister. This was followed by the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Europe. After World War II women were ordained as clergy in the Lutheran Church in Denmark in 1948, Sweden in 1960, Norway in 1961, and in the Church of Scotland in 1969.9 In 1956 the United Methodist Church ordained women with full clergy rights and in 1980 appointed Marjorie Matthews as the first female bishop in any mainline Protestant church. The Presbyterian Church began ordaining women elders in the 1960s and later ordained them to the ministry of the Word and sacrament. In 1975 the Anglican Church of Canada ordained women and in 1976 the Episcopal Church, USA, began officially to ordain women as priests. In the Anglican Church it was decided in the 1978 Lambeth Conference that women could become deaconesses, and the Church gave its approval to the ordination of women in various Anglican communities.

In the 1988 Lambeth Conference a decision was made to allow the various provinces to ordain women as priests or bishops. Thus in 1989 Penny Jamieson of New Zealand became the first female Anglican bishop, followed by Barbara Harris in the USA. Consequently, in the 1998 Lambeth Conference, with eleven female bishops in attendance, the ordination of women was a nonissue. On June 18, 2006, the Episcopal Church, USA, elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as their first woman presiding bishop. She was invested into that office on November 4, 2006.

Notably, the churches that have allowed women into ministry and leadership positions have been largely the mainline denominations which, generally speaking, are of a more liberal persuasion. Among others, there are two significant factors that have contributed to an increase of women in ministry. First, since World War II many more women have entered the work force and an increased number of women have attended universities. In the past, men dominated in both of these areas. Subsequently, in the 1970s there was a dramatic rise in the number of women who enrolled in seminaries, many of whom, when they graduated, sought to become clerics within churches.10

Second, there was a decrease in the number of men available to fill all the leadership positions in churches, paving the way for women to fill many of those positions. Trained along with men in theological education, many felt that women should and could ably occupy positions that, in previous generations, were relegated only to men. It is interesting to note the progression from pastor to elder to bishop to presiding bishop. At the turn of the twentyfirst century there were about as many women as men holding office in Protestant denominations.

However, over the years many churches have refused to go in the same direction. For example, in a statement on women's ordination (1984) at the Southern Baptist Convention in Kansas City there was the resolution "WHEREAS, The Scriptures teach that women are not in public worship to assume a role of authority over men lest confusion reign in the local church (1 Cor. 14:33-36); and WHEREAS, While Paul commends women and men alike in other roles of ministry and service (Titus 2:1-10), he excludes women from pastoral leadership (I Tim. 2:12) to preserve a submission God requires because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall (I Tim. 2:1ff);. . . ."n More recently, some Southern Baptists have become even more stringent regarding women in ministry.