Ordination of women in Protestant churches

Part of a series on Christianity and Gender

Theology

Women in Christianity Women in the Bible Jesus' interactions with women Female disciples of Jesus Paul of Tarsus and women Image of God List of women in the Bible Women as theological figures

4 Major Positions

Christian Egalitarianism Christian Feminism Complementarianism Biblical patriarchy

Church and Society

Christianity and homosexuality Ordination of women Women in Church history

Organizations

Christians for Biblical Equality Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus

Theologians and authors

Feminist: Letha Dawson Scanzoni · Anne Eggebroten · Virginia Ramey Mollenkott Egalitarian: William J. Webb · Kenneth E. Hagin · Gordon Fee · Frank Stagg · Paul Jewett · Stanley Grenz · Roger Nicole Complementarian: Don Carson · John Frame · Wayne Grudem · Douglas Moo · Paige Patterson · Vern Poythress

The ordination of women in Protestant churches has often been carried out in light of the theological doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, which might include women if the expression is taken in a very literal sense.

Elders, pastors and ministers

However, most (although not all) Protestant denominations still ordain church leaders who have the task of equipping all believers in their Christian service (Ephesians 4:11-13). These leaders (variously styled elders, pastors or ministers) are seen to have a distinct role in teaching, pastoral leadership and the administration of sacraments.

Traditionally these roles were male preserves, but over the last century, an increasing number of denominations have begun ordaining women. The notion of a priesthood reserved to a select few is seen as an Old Testament concept, inappropriate for Christians. Prayer belongs equally to all believing women and men.

Relevant Biblical Passages

The debate over women's eligibility for such offices normally centers around interpretation of certain Biblical passages relating to teaching and leadership roles. This is because Protestant churches usually view the Bible as the primary authority in church debates, even over established traditions (the doctrine of sola scriptura). Thus the Church is free to change her stance, if the change is deemed in accordance with the Bible. The main passages in this debate include Galatians 3:28, 1 Cor. 11:2-16, 1 Cor. 14:34-35 and 1 Tim. 2:11-14, 1 Tim. 3:1-7, Tit. 1:5-9

Views taken in the New Testament

Increasingly, supporters of women in ministry also make appeals to evidence from the New Testament that is taken to suggest that women did exercise ministries in the apostolic Church (e.g., Acts 21:9, Acts 18:18, Romans 16:1-4, Romans 16:7; 1 Cor. 16:19, and Philippians 4:2–3) and that the Biblical passages used to argue against women's ordination might be read differently when a clear understanding of the unique historical context of each passage is available.

Examples within specific churches

• The Apostolic Johannite Church has offered ordination to women as deacons, priests and bishops since its foundation.
• Baptist Churches

• The Baptist Churches in Germany and Switzerland (Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden, Bund Schweizer Baptistengemeinden) ordain women.
• The Southern Baptist Convention does not support the ordination of women; however, some churches that are members of the SBC have ordained women.
• Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches actively encourage and ordain women to ministry, including as pastors.
• Baptist groups in the United States that do ordain women include American Baptist Churches USA, North American Baptist Conference, Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) and Progressive National Baptist Convention.

• The Charismatic Church of God ordains women as Missionaries, Evangelists, and Pastors.
• It is believed that the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches does not ordain women.
• The Mennonite Church Canada ordains women.
• Christian Connection Church. An early relative of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, this body ordained women as early as 1810. Among them were Nancy Gove Cram, who worked as a missionary with the Oneida Indians by 1812, and Abigail Roberts (a lay preacher and missionary), who helped establish many churches in New Jersey. Others included Ann Rexford, Sarah Hedges and Sally Thompson.
• It is believed that the Christian and Missionary Alliance does not ordain women.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not ordain women.
• The Church of Scotland

• Women were commissioned as deacons from 1935, and allowed to preach from 1949.
• In 1963 Mary Levison petitioned the General Assembly for ordination.
• Woman elders were introduced in 1966 and women ministers in 1968.
• The first female Moderator of the General Assembly was Dr Alison Elliot in 2004.

Main article: Ordination of women in the Church of Scotland

• Neither the Free Church of Scotland, nor the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) ordains women.
• The Free Reformed Churches of North America ordain men only.
• The Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1888 Louisa Woosley was licensed to preach. She was ordained in 1889. She wrote Shall Woman Preach.
• Community of Christ. A revelation was approved at the church's 1984 World Conference which called for the ordination of women, and granted women access to all the offices of the priesthood. Although this caused many congregations to break off from the main body of the church, forming dissident congregations and in some cases new denominations, women have been ordained in many nations since then. Currently the Council of Twelve Apostles has four female members. In addition, in 2007, Becky L. Savage became the first female member of the church's First Presidency. Following the legislative action of the 1984 World Conference, the church changed the name of one of its priesthood offices from evangelist-patriarch to evangelist, and its associated sacrament, the patriarchal blessing, to the evangelist's blessing.
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the USA. The church bodies that formed the ELCA in 1988 began ordaining women in 1970 when the Lutheran Church in America ordained the Rev Elizabeth Platz. The ordination of women is now non-controversial within the ELCA.
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia reversed its earlier (1975) decision to ordain women as pastors. Since 1993, under the leadership of Archbishop Janis Vanags, it no longer does so.
• The Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Germany does not ordain women.
• The Independent Old Catholic Church of America (IOCCA) ordains women.
• The Lutheran, United and Reformed Churches in Germany (EKD) ordain women and have women as bishops.
• The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), which is the second largest Lutheran body in the United States, does not ordain women.
• The Lutheran state churches in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland ordain women and these Lutheran churches in Europe have women as bishops already. However, while the Church of Sweden was the first Lutheran church to ordain female pastors in 1958, there is still considerable debate in this church as to the legitimacy of the ordination of women into the pastoral office. In fact, in 2003 the Missionsprovinsen (Mission Province) was formed within the Church of Sweden to support those who oppose the ordination of women and other developments seen as theologically problematic.
• The Lutheran Evangelical Protestant Church (GCEPC) has ordained women since its inception in the year 2000. Ordination of women is not a controversial issue in the LEPC/GCEPC. Women are ordained/consecrated at all levels including deacon,priest, and bishop in the LEPC/GCEPC.
• The Moravian Church ordains women.
• Many Old Catholic Churches within the Utrecht Union in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Netherlands ordain women. Dr. Angela Berlis was the first woman priest in the Union, ordained in 1996. However, two churches have left the union because of their strong objection to the ordination of women. Some other Old Catholic Churches do not ordain women, but accept this in fellow Old Catholic Churches of the Union. These are not to be confused with the Roman Catholic Church which does not ordain women (see above).
• The Pentecostal church in Germany allows ordination of women.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1893, Edith Livingston Peake was appointed Presbyterian Evangelist by First United Presbyterian of San Francisco. Between 1907 and 1920 five more women became ministers. The Presbyterian Church (USA) began ordaining women as elders in 1930, and as ministers of Word and sacrament in 1956. By 2001, the numbers of men and women holding office were almost equal.
• The Presbyterian Church in America does not ordain women. In 1997, the PCA even broke its fraternal relationship with The Christian Reformed Church over this issue.
• The Orthodox Presbyterian Church does not ordain women.
• The Reformed Churches in Switzerland and in the Netherlands ordain women.
• The Salvation Army ordains women.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church officially does not ordain women. In North America the Adventist Church, however, commissions women instead of ordaining. They can perform all the same duties as an ordained minister but do not hold the title of ordained. This is because recent votes at the worldwide General Conference Sessions turned down a proposal to allow ordination of women. There was a strong polarization between nations, with Western countries generally voting in support and other countries generally voting against. A further proposal to allow local choice was also turned down. In practice, there are numerous women working as ministers and in leadership positions. The most influential co-founder of the church, Ellen G. White, was a woman.
• The United Church of Canada. Divided during the 1930s by this issue inherited from the churches it brought together, the United Church ordained its first woman minister, Lydia Gruchy, in 1936.
• The United Church of Christ. Antoinette Brown was ordained as a minister by a Congregationalist Church in 1853, though this was not recognized by her denomination. She later became a Unitarian. Women's ordination is now non-controversial in the United Church of Christ.
• The United Methodist Church does ordain women. In 1880, Anna Howard Shaw was ordained by the Methodist Protestant Church; Ella Niswonger was ordained in 1889 by the United Brethren Church. Both denominations later merged into the United Methodist Church. In 1956, the Methodist Church in America granted ordination and full clergy rights to women. Since that time, women have been ordained full elders (pastors) in the denomination, and 21 have been elevated to the episcopacy. The first woman elected and consecrated Bishop within the United Methodist Church (and, indeed, the first woman elected bishop of any mainline Christian church) was Marjorie Matthews in 1980. Leontine T. Kelly, in 1984, was the first African-American woman elevated to the episcopacy in any mainline denomination. In Germany Rosemarie Wenner is since 2005 leading bishop in the United Methodist Church.
• The United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom ordains women.
• The Unitarians ordain women. In Australia, Martha Turner was appointed minister to the Melbourne Unitarian church in 1873. Gertrude von Petzold was the first woman to be ordained as a Unitarian minister in England, in 1904.
• The Unitarian Universalist Association. The Unitarian Universalist Association has a long history of welcoming women to the ministry, reaching back to 1863 and one of its predecessors, the Universalist Church. In 1999, it became the first major religion in the US with women outnumbering men in the clergy.
• The Universalist Church. Olympia Brown became the first woman to be ordained as a minister in 1863, as an ordained Universalist minister.

Women as bishops

File:Izabela.JPG

Izabela Wilucka with Catholic Mariavite Church of Poland in 1929

Some Protestant and Anglican churches have allowed women to become their bishops:

• 1907 Church of the Nazarene—(although they do not have bishops, they have a similar office called "District Superintendent") http://www.nazarene.org they have been ordaining women for every office since their inception and more than 1/2 of their ministers were women. Today however, women are in prominent positions but less than 1% of all ordained ministers are women and women are largely relegated to subordinate roles and not given large churches. Mostly they are told to work with children, despite official claims to the contrary.
• 1929: Mariavite Church in Poland—abp. Antonina Maria Izabela Wiłucka—Kowalska and 11 sisters.
• 1980: United Methodist Church—Marjorie Matthews
• 1989: Episcopal Church in the United States of America—Barbara Clementine Harris
• 1989: Anglican Church of New Zealand—Penelope Ann Bansall Jamieson
• 1992: United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany—Maria Jepsen
• 1993: Church of Norway—Rosemarie Köhn
• 1994: Anglican Church of Canada—Victoria Matthews
• 1995: Church of Denmark—Lise-Lotte Rebel
• 1996: Church of Sweden—Christina Odenberg
• 1998: Moravian Church in America—Dr. Kay Ward
• 1998: United Church of Christ in the Philippines—Nelinda Primavera-Briones
• 1998: Presbyterian Church in Guatemala
• 1999: Czechoslovak Hussite Church—Jana Šilerová
• 2000: African Methodist Episcopal Church—Vashti Murphy McKenzie
• 2003: The Lutheran Evangelical Protestant Church (GCEPC)USA—Nancy K. Drew
• 2008: Anglican Church of Australia—Kay Goldsworthy
• 2008: African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church—Mildred B. Hines

• Others: Protestant Churches in German Lutheran, Reformed and United churches (EKD), Protestant Church of the Netherlands, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.