Gifted: Women in leadership

By Debbie Duncan

Gifted - women in leadership.

You would be mistaken if you thought this book was just for women.

It looks at the history of women in church life and leadership, at egalitarianism and complementarism and says - women are leaders and so are men , what can we learn from each other ? It’s looks at different leadership styles, gifts and skills. And it’s also includes other women’s stories from Margaret Sentamu and Christy Wimber to a Vicky Thompson and Bev Murrill. There are other contributors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Release date: Nov 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9780857219497

Debbie Duncan

Debbie Duncan is an advanced nurse practitioner and lecturer in nursing; a church leader and minister's wife. She is married to Rev Malcolm Duncan and has a busy family life that includes being mum to their four grown up children. She is the author of Brave, The Art of Daily Resilience, and The God Cares series. Debbie is also an author of over fifty professional nursing journal articles and two text books in nursing. She writes on a range of issues that often reflect her professional life and personal faith.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

You may wonder why there is a chapter about the history of women in leadership. Studying history is important; it helps us understand how theological, cultural, and social trends and values have developed and how they have shaped us to become the people we are today. It helps us understand how present-day practices came into being and makes us reflect on whether things could be different. A good example of why we do what we do is the idea that all church services should start late morning at 10 or 11 a.m. They have been at these times for hundreds of years to allow local farmers time to milk their cows and still get cleaned up for church or to give workmen a little bit of a lie-in on a Sunday. Although the debate around women and leadership in church life is more complex than church service times, it is important to understand the history around the debate as well as the different theological ideas.

Cicero is thought to have said, Never forget the importance of history. To know nothing of what happened before you took your place on earth is to remain a child for ever and ever. There are men and women who, throughout history, have made decisions that have impacted not just their own generation but generations to come – not always wise or helpful decisions. It is important not to dwell on the mistakes made, to blame them for why things are the way they are, but to learn from them so that we can be better prepared to make the right choices in the future.

The role of women in church leadership is not a new area of debate, but one that reaches as far back as the early church fathers: the apostolic fathers who lived within two generations of the original 12 apostles. Examples include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Papias of Hierapolis. During this patristic era, a male hierarchy was established over church affairs. This was countercultural to the life of the ancient church, where women served as deacons and church financiers, like Phoebe from the church in Cenchreae and Lydia of Thyatira. Epiphanius of Salamis (AD 310–403) was Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus at the end of the fourth century and is considered one of the church fathers by both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. He writes of women deacons and elders in the early days of the church but notes that women were not able to become priests. Often women were seen leading alongside their husbands in churches. This occurred in the recognized national church until AD 384–398 when Pope Siricius banned sex for both married and unmarried clergy, thereby paving the way for the twelfth-century requirement of universal clerical celibacy. This remained the case until the Reformation when Luther declared that marriage for the clergy and true believers was not a means of grace but a way of life.¹

Deacon comes from the Greek work diákonos, which means servant or minister and appears in the New Testament. The term is used to describe the role of an appointed member of the church who is known for their service to others and meeting the material needs of the church; this one word included both females and male deacons. At the time of the Council of Nicaea, a pivotal moment in church history, women deacons were well known and active in the Byzantine church. The purpose of the council was to discuss the true nature of Christ and various aspects of worship and Christian life. This was an ecumenical council who met seeking to gain consensus through an assembly representing all the Christian denominations.² By the end of the fourth century there are records of 40 women deacons working in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, women like Olympias and Amproulka. There were, however, many restrictions related to this role in the church.³

Women had to be celibate or a widow. Initially an age restriction of 60 years and above was suggested by Tertullian (AD c. 155–220), who was an early Christian author and apologist, considered the founder of Western theology.⁴ But this was later changed to 40 years at the Council of Chalcedon. The Council of Laodicea in AD 343–381 forbade the appointment of deaconesses who were married. Then, in AD 441, the First Council of Orange ruled in its twenty-sixth canon that the appointment of deaconesses was forbidden. Culture was changing and, in AD 494, Pope Gelasius I wrote a letter condemning female participation in the celebration of the Eucharist, believing this role was one reserved for only men. By the sixth century the role of female deacon was almost extinct in the national church. There were exceptions, like Radegund and Andromache, the sixth-century Greek deacons, or St Irene, a deaconess in ninth-century Constantinople.

The early middle ages saw few women involved in church leadership, though there were some women called anchoresses who would live in a small room attached to a church and devote themselves to prayer and meditation.

Then a shift occurred again and, during the Dark Ages, women often became the head of religious institutions. This was certainly the case in the North of Ireland. From AD 432, with the establishment of the monasteries by St Patrick, to the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, monasteries became well-known for their wealth and repositories for significant artefacts, such as the Book of Kells. Women’s rights were considered equal to men in Irish society and were encapsulated in the Brehon or matters of law. St Patrick condensed these laws down to five volumes, known as Senchus Mór, and allowed them to be framed by Christian doctrine. The Brehon Law was well ahead of its time and focused on equality and democracy. Women were entitled to enter all the same professions as men; they could be leaders of monasteries, poets, physicians, lawgivers, teachers, leaders and warriors.

There are always some women who are the exception to the culture and trends of the day. Compared to Ireland, there were no such religious and cultural liberties for women in England, but they could become an abbess, or the head of a religious community, with authority over both men and women. An example can be seen in Hilda of Whitby (c. AD 614–80), whose abbey was famous as a seat of learning. Hilda became an advisor to bishops and kings. There are also examples of women who joined the Crusades once they gained their husbands’ consent! Many believed that there was even a female pope called Pope Joan, who was disguised as a man. She is thought to have reigned in AD 855 or 1110 for only three years and was only found out when she gave birth while riding in procession. If true, it happened during a time of early division in the Roman Catholic Church when there were rival popes in both Rome and Avignon.

Other exceptions were the Waldensians, an ascetic group founded at the start of the twelfth century, who allowed women to preach; they are still around today. They were pre-Reformation Protestants but were excommunicated by the Third Lateran Council. In general, the medieval period was a difficult period in history for women, let alone those who were called to be leaders. As the curtains of the Dark Ages were pushed aside, we find women in England involved in various trades – be it managers of large households or extensive properties, full members of guilds, governors of countries, and rulers of nations. They headed industries such as spinning, weaving, catering, pickling, and even distilling! They were essentially the woman of Proverbs 31. What changed all this was the Reformation.

The Reformation

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences to the doors of Wittenberg University. His thesis was a list of propositions for an academic disputation against what he saw as the abuse of the practice of clergy selling plenary indulgences, which were certificates believed to reduce the temporal punishment in purgatory for sins committed by the purchasers or their loved ones. He claimed that the repentance required by Christ for sins to be forgiven involves inner-spiritual repentance rather than sacramental confession, challenging a fourteenth-century papal bull stating that the pope could use the treasury of merit and the good deeds of past saints to forgive temporal punishment for sins. Luther sent the 95 Theses, enclosed with a letter, to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, on 31 October 1517, a date now considered the start of the Reformation and commemorated annually as Reformation Day. The 95 Theses were reprinted, translated, and distributed throughout Germany and Europe, facilitated by the new printing presses. This led to a schism in the Roman Catholic Church that ultimately lead to reformation across Europe.

The belief in the distinct roles of men and women was reiterated throughout the reformation with theologians and reformers like Martin Luther who said, the wife should stay at home and look after the affairs of the household as one who has been deprived of the ability of administering those affairs that are outside and concern the state. Almost contradicting himself, he also wrote: Imagine what it would be like without women. The home, cities, economic life, and government would virtually disappear. Men cannot do without women. Even if it were possible for men to beget and bear children, they still could not do without women.⁵ In fact, Martin Luther helped 12 nuns escape from a convent and married one of them, Katharina Von Bora, setting a precedent for the clergy to marry. They were happily married for many years and Katharine was very much involved in church life.

The Scottish theologian and reformer, John Knox (c. 1514–72) also believed women should not be leaders and denied women the right to rule in the civic sphere. For women, the Reformation meant that there was a focus on the exclusiveness of marriage as the basis for the holy vocation. Women were not encouraged to participate in public debates, church leadership or theological work as their faith was to be channelled through their homes.⁶ Despite this, post-Reformation women were in a better place than even their grandmothers as they were encouraged to read the Bible in their own language.

It would be safe to say, however, that most Protestant churches upheld the traditional position of restricting the role of women in preaching and church leadership. It is difficult to understand why this belief was so tightly held. It was not until the Enlightenment, with the emergence of nonconformist churches and the Holiness movement, that there were small flames of change being fanned into being, as many new expressions of church began to grow.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment paved a way for the Industrial Revolution and the growth of empire. The great thinkers of the time challenged society about many of the religious, philosophical, and political beliefs of the day. It is thought to have started with the ideas of Descartes and ultimately lead to the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century.

Philosophy, science, and politics were forever changed as centuries of tradition were left behind in favour of exploration, individual expression, justice and tolerance, and scientific exploration – having a profound impact on Western culture. One key thinker of the period was the philosopher and physician John Locke, who believed and advocated a separation of church and state, religious tolerance and freedom, the right of the individual to own property and the innate rights of the people. These ideas were easily shared with the development of the printing press, increasing levels of literacy, and a public hunger for knowledge. This increase in individualism, reason, and personal belief led to an acceptance that matters of belief could be actively debated in the eighteenth century.

The impact of the Enlightenment in England led to the recognition of dissenting religions in legislation, such as the 1689 Act of Toleration, and even political emancipation for Roman Catholics. Until then, Roman Catholics had limited property rights. The sense of outrage at social and economic injustice is thought to have led to the political revolutions of both America (1765–83) and France (1789–99).⁷ New movements for political reform argued in favour of protecting human rights such as freedom of speech for men and women. Although women believed in the light of Locke’s work that they were equivalent to men in receiving natural rights, these principles were not established in law. The ideology of patriarchy continued, providing an explanation to justify political, religious, and social dominance.⁸ The inherent natural differences between men and women were considered as the reason for this strongly held belief.

There were, however, a few exceptions to many of these beliefs. The Protestant Reformation led to a general belief that the authority of the Bible exceeds that of popes and other church figures. Groups such as the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) and some of the early Pentecostal Holiness movements believed in the equality of women. The Quaker views on women were ahead of their time. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, they held attitudes toward gender and equitable roles for women called the Testimony of Equality, although this was not universally accepted initially. Women in the English Quaker Church could preach and prophesy as early as 1656. Despite this, George Fox went on to establish separate women’s meetings to appease general opinion when he faced challenges to his own leadership. This shows how politics can influence beliefs. (In more recent times, we see a similar, if not worse example of this in British Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal party, H. H. Asquith, who advocated denying women the right to vote, believing that many of them would vote for a conservative leader at the next election.)

John Wesley (1703–91), the founder of Methodism, also believed in male headship but did allow women to speak in church meetings if they were guided by God. It is extraordinary to think that John and Charles’ mother, Susanna, was really the mother of Methodism, having guided her two sons to faith and was herself a prolific writer of meditations and scriptural commentaries on the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. It wasn’t until 1861 that Mary A. Will was the first woman ordained in the Wesleyan Methodist Connection by the Illinois Conference in the United States.

The Welsh nonconformist and theologian Matthew Henry (1662–1714) allowed prayer and hymns written by women in churches as he suggested they weren’t regarded as teaching.

In the nineteenth century, a movement known as The Holiness movement emerged from Methodism. The early Pentecostal groups of the church were also birthed from the Holiness movement. They were active in works of social justice, interracial work, temperance, and women’s suffrage. From 1850 there were several women who were evangelists