I found this great poem on a blog today and had to share it.
"Did the woman say,
When she held him for the first time in the dark of a stable,
After the pain and the bleeding and the crying,
'This is my body, this is my blood'?
Did the woman say,
When she held him for the last time in the dark rain on a hilltop,
After the pain and the bleeding and the dying,
'This is my body, this is my blood'?
Well that she said it to him then,
For dry old men,
Brocaded robes belying barrenness,
Ordain that she not say it for him now."
by Frances Croake Frank
While I am well settled in my own theology on this issue, I am still working out how I feel about those people and churches who disagree with me. On one hand, I know that I want to work somewhere where this is not an issue: I want to be able to go to work each day without facing major opposition based on my gender, at least not from within my community. On the other hand, churches which would reject me immediately based on my genitals are part of God's kingdom and I will need to work with them at times. Do I just smile and agree to disagree? Do I fight the fight? Do I refuse to address the question?
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3 comments:
Your conservative Presbyterian background is showing. Recently, I've heard two sermons by women in 2 different traditional Methodist churches, and was served communion by a woman pastor in a traditional Presbyterian church (all three women were pastors).
This is not something you have to worry about. I think most churches are happy to ordain and hire women. You won't be offered jobs by churches that aren't happy to do so.
Paul says there is no male or female in Christ. Christ Himself allowed women to serve with Him and revealed Himself first to women---in an age when a woman couldn't even be a witness in court.
To me it appears to be a non-issue in the mainline Christian world. Be careful not to let Satan distract you by this issue that is becoming less and less significant all the time. Just be who and what God has made you to be.
I loved the poem. No one but Mary and Christ could make such a statement. As a mother, I suspect that those thoughts were in her mind both at His birth and at His death. How could they not be? Regardless of what any barren old man may say, Mary had the right to those words. She was His mother---just as God had made her to be. She knew God's purpose and followed it without anyone's permission or approval. Go thou and do likewise.
You might be surprised, actually, at how large an issue this is. Remember that I am no longer in the mainline Christian church, and while most emergent churches fully empower women, not all do. People still walk out of churches when women stand up to preach. People still ask me what my husband thinks when I say I'm going to be a pastor (this is typically the thinly veiled way to critique my choice). Stepping back: the Roman Catholic church, Greek Orthodox church, and numerous Protestant churches do not ordain women. One of the networking meetings that I have been invited too is openly opposed to women in ministry and is very obvious about it. In the big networking meeting I go to, there are always less than 10 women present.
I don't believe that this battle is my calling: but I am faced with the question quite often and I am trying to formulate my response. Argument? Agree to disagree? Ignoring the question? All these are possible responses.
Oh, and one other thought: I would say, conservatively, that 75% of the women I meet who are involved in ministry struggle greatly with the question of whether they can and should be ordained. Very few women, even women younger than me, are comfortable with the thought that they could be ordained pastors. So even if it is permissible, it is not communicated as such.
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