WHY WOMEN SHOULD BE ORDAINED

WHY WOMEN SHOULD BE

ORDAINED

Much as the arguments against women’s ordination are raised and supported by verses and precepts in the Bible, so also those who insist that women should be ordained have raised their arguments and supported them with verses and precepts. Gail Wallace, PhD, an educational consultant in America raised so many issues concerning the interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:12. Writing on Five Reasons to Stop Using 1 Timothy 2:12 Against Women, Wallace said “Authority” is a poor translation of the Greek word Paul used in 1 Timothy 2:12. The Greek word Paul used for “authority” in this passage (authentein) is so unusual compared to his other references to authority that he could not possibly have been talking about the normative Church leadership structures.

Wallace also said applying 1 Timothy 2:12 literally but not doing the same for the surrounding verses is shoddy hermeneutics. With rare exceptions, no one teaches that women should be silent or quiet in Church. What does it say about the integrity of your biblical interpretation if you single this one verse out and disregard those around it?

Paul’s restriction, according to Wallace, was given in the context of a personal letter to Timothy giving advice about a specific issue in the Church at Ephesus. There is no command from God here, and no suggestion that Paul was establishing a Church policy for all time. There is no mention of this in the rest of Paul’s writings, or anywhere else in the Bible for that matter.

Wallace also pointed out that when you read all of Paul’s letters and the Book of Acts in one sitting, it is apparent that Paul supported the leadership of women. We see this in a number of Churches, including Philippi, Thessalonica, Cenchrae, and Rome. It is baffling that some Church leaders and theologians give such weight to the 1 Timothy 2 passage when many other portions of scripture support equality. Paul’s practice aside, such a restriction contradicts the teaching of Jesus and the Kingdom of God values he ushered in.

Lastly, Wallace said Churches find it impossible to put 1 Timothy 2:12 into practice in a consistent or logical way. There is a wide discrepancy in how 1 Timothy 2:12 is applied. In some Churches women can do everything but hold the position of a senior Pastor. In other Churches women can’t even teach a mixed gender high school Sunday school class. How do they interpret the verse?

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IF YOU HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, ORDINATION IS SECONDARY!

There are other arguments against the restriction on women. Nantondo Hadebe raised the issue of the emphasis placed on the maleness of Christ over his humanity. “It is the example of Jesus, his life, dedication to his community and to God as well as willingness to suffer for justice, etc that we are called to emulate, not his maleness. I, personally, like many of you find the life of Jesus an inspiration. All I am saying is that the maleness argument should not be used to exclude women from leadership positions in the Church and from participating in all aspects of Church life. There is nothing a man would do that a woman can’t do in Church administration, teaching and spiritual devotions.”

Also, women who have been ordained Pastors in some of the Pentecostal Churches do not agree with the restriction some Churches place on women. In an interview with e-life, Rev. Dr. Janet Onaolapo, General Overseer of Abundant Life Gospel Church, Lagos said, ‘side-by-side Jesus were women like his mother, and Mary Magdalene. Side-by-side Apostle Paul were women who accompanied him on his missionary journeys. The men did not and could not do the job alone. The Book of Acts and the letters of St. Paul show that certain women worked with the Apostle Paul.

Paul lists their names with gratitude in the final salutations of the letters. Some of the women often had an important influence on soul winning. For example, Priscilla completed the instruction of Apollos and Phoebe, a deacon, served the Church of Cenchreae.” Onaolapo added ‘When Jesus was giving the Great Commission, it was not gender based. His instruction was to everybody. He told the people to wait for the Spirit of discernment. He told them they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. When He came, He was not selective on gender lines. He fell on both men and women in the upper room. That was the power. That was the commission. Women don’t need anything empowerment. If you have the Holy Spirit, ordination is secondary!”

Although women played an important role on resurrection day, Paul did not extend their collaboration to the official and public proclamation of the message that belongs exclusively to the apostolic mission. Paul’s writings clearly indicate that women were qualified and quite capable of holding leadership positions in the early Church. The Sacred Congregation has chosen to ignore the important role women played in the early establishment of Christianity and the Church. If the Sacred Congregation would give due recognition to these women, it might have a more favourable outlook towards the possibility of ordination of women in the modern Church.

IS THE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD

In his publication, Can Women Lead the Church? J. Lee Grady wrote, “Today, because so many conservative Christians have viewed 1 Timothy 2:12 (I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man) as a universal injunction–to be applied to all Churches at all times–we have cultivated a bizarre fear of strong women who preach or teach. This is a strange view indeed, for three reasons:

• First, we know from Scripture that women held the office of prophet under the Old Covenant, and that under the New Covenant the Apostle Paul himself placed women in positions of authority in the early Church, even at a time when females in secular society were barred from pursuing education or leadership roles.

• Second, the Bible challenges men and women alike to be strong and courageous in their faith and in their response to the Great Commission. There is no reason to assume that Jesus only intended males to evangelise the world. Both men and women are called to “go” and to “teach.” Timidity is never portrayed as a virtue in the Scriptures, for either gender.
• Third, the history of Christianity is full of examples of strong, godly women who achieved remarkable breakthroughs for the kingdom of God. To say that women should not display spiritual strength or do exploits in the name of Jesus is to discredit everything that Christian women have done to further the gospel.
  Grady wondered that if we want to stake a claim that women shouldn’t lead the Church, are we prepared to say that everything the women have done to expand the kingdom of God was a mistake? Is the Salvation Army an illegitimate organisation because a strong, vocal woman preacher was a driving force behind it? Do we really want to negate the countless missionary breakthroughs made in the 19th and 20th centuries in China and India, since so many women–such as Amy Carmichael, Bertha Smith or Marie Monsen–were responsible for the pioneering work there?
  
  

According to Grady, if we look at the history of revival movements, it is clear that whenever there has been a deepening of spiritual passion and holiness in the Church, and a corresponding call to evangelism, women have responded to the call to ministry even when it was culturally unacceptable for them to do so. This was true during the Second Great Awakening in the United States, which unleashed an army of women to fund missionary movements and to lead the abolitionist cause. It was also obvious in the early days of the Pentecostal revival, which mobilised women preachers to blaze trails in foreign and domestic mission fields. These women, including healing evangelists Lilian Yeomans, Carrie Judd Montgomery, Minnie Draper, Ida Robinson, Aimee Semple McPherson and Florence Crawford, started Churches that still flourish today.

In Nigeria, are we ready to discountenance the great impacts of widows like Archbishop Margaret Idahosa, Rev. (Dr) Jane Onaolapo, Apostle Eunice Gordon Osagiede, Pastor Nkechi Anayo Iloputaife, etc who held on to the ministries when their founder-husbands passed on? Shall we say Jesus has not honoured the contributions of women like Funke Adejumo, Funke Adetuberu, Bimbo Odukoya, Deola Ojo and others like Rev. Victoria Mokunga in Jos, Rev Dr. Eunice Musa Iliya in Zing, Taraba State?
“These women were not looking for a spotlight or a pulpit, nor were they out to win an argument or to prove that women are better than men. They were prayer warriors, who loved the Word of God and used it skillfully to combat the evils of their day. They were mothers of the faith, who nurtured new converts with the milk of salvation and trained their disciples to pursue spiritual maturity,” Grady posited

CONCLUSION

In agreement with Hadebe, it is important to realise that gender analysis is not a threat to the Church, but a tool that can enable us to root out those aspects in our faith traditions that perpetuate the oppression, exclusion and marginalisation of women. Perhaps some of us feel that things should be left alone, but the rising incidents of violence against women is, a clear sign that all is not well, that gender inequality is not a harmless practice that will disappear! Gender inequality needs to be seen for what it really is a crime against humanity and a seat for the struggle for justice. That struggle needs to happen within the Church. Women’s rights are human rights.