Ordination of women

File:Izabela.JPG

Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska - the first woman-bishop in Poland (1929)

In general religious use, ordination is the process by which a person is consecrated (set apart for the administration of various religious rites). The ordination of women is a controversial issue in religions where either the rite of ordination, or the role that an ordained person fulfills, has traditionally been restricted to men because of cultural prohibitions or theological doctrines.

History

In liturgical Christianity, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism, ordination—distinguished from religious or consecrated life—is the means by which a person is included in one of the orders of bishops, priests, or deacons.

In many Protestant denominations ordination is understood more generally as the acceptance of a person for pastoral work. Since the mid-nineteenth century, these denominations have allowed for female office-bearers and preachers. Today, about half of all American Protestant denominations ordain women and about 30% of all seminary students (and in some seminaries over half) are female. The United Methodist Church was the first American Protestant denomination to approve full ordination and clergy rights for women in 1956.

Orthodox Judaism does not permit women to become rabbis (instead, the women in leadership positions are often rebbetzin, wives of a rabbi), but female rabbis have begun to appear in recent decades among more liberal Jewish movements, especially the Reconstructionist, Renewal, Reform, and Humanistic denominations (see Women as Rabbis) .

Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders. The imam serves as a spiritual leader and religious authority. Most strands of Islam permit women to lead female-only congregations in prayer (one of the competences of an imam), but restrict their roles in mixed-sex congregations. There is a recent movement to extend women's roles in spiritual leadership.

Within Buddhism, the legitimacy of ordaining women as bhikkhuni (nuns) has become a significant topic of discussion in some areas in recent years. It is widely accepted that the Buddha created an order of bhikkhuni, but the tradition of ordaining women has died out in some Buddhist traditions, such as Theravada Buddhism, while remaining strong in others, such as Chinese Buddhism.

Buddhism

Main article: Ordination of women in Buddhism

The ordination of women is currently and historically practiced in some Buddhist regions, such as East Asia and Taiwan, and now once again in India and Sri Lanka.

The tradition of the ordained monastic community (sangha) began with the Buddha, who established an order of Bhikkhus (monks). According to the scriptures, later, after an initial reluctance, he also established an order of Bhikkhunis (nuns or women monks).

Christianity

Catholic Church

Main article: Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women

The official position of the Catholic Church, as expressed in the current canon law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that: "Only a baptized man (In Latin, vir) validly receives sacred ordination." Insofar as priestly and episcopal ordination are concerned, the Church teaches that this requirement is a matter of divine law, and thus doctrinal. The requirement that only males can receive ordination to the permanent diaconate has not been promulgated as doctrinal by the Church's magisterium, though it is clearly at least a requirement according to canon law.

Orthodox Churches

The Orthodox Churches follows a similar line of reasoning as the Catholic Church with respect to ordination of priests.

Regarding deaconesses, Professor Evangelos Theodorou argued that female deacons were actually ordained in antiquity. K. K. Fitzgerald has followed and amplified Professor Theodorou's research. Bishop Kallistos Ware wrote:

The order of deaconesses seems definitely to have been considered an "ordained" ministry during early centuries in at any rate the Christian East. ... Some Orthodox writers regard deaconesses as having been a "lay" ministry. There are strong reasons for rejecting this view. In the Byzantine rite the liturgical office for the laying-on of hands for the deaconess is exactly parallel to that for the deacon; and so on the principle lex orandi, lex credendi—the Church's worshipping practice is a sure indication of its faith—it follows that the deaconesses receives, as does the deacon, a genuine sacramental ordination: not just a Template:Polytonic but a Template:Polytonic. However, the ordination of women in tThe Catholic Church does exist. Although it is not widespread, it is official by the Roman Catholic Church.

On October 8, 2004, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece voted to permit the ordination of monastic women deacons, that is, women deacons to minister and assist at the liturgy within their own monasteries.

There is a strong monastic tradition, pursued by both men and women in the Orthodox churches, where monks and nuns lead identical spiritual lives. Unlike Western-rite Catholic religious life, which has myriad traditions, both contemplative and active (see Benedictine monks, Franciscan friars, Jesuits), that of Orthodoxy has remained exclusively ascetic and monastic.

Anglicanism

Main article: Ordination of women in the Anglican communion

The majority of Anglican provinces ordain women as both deacons and priests. Only a few provinces, however, have consecrated women as bishops (although the number of provinces where women bishops are canonically possible is much greater). The Episcopal Church in the United States ordains women as both priests and bishops.

Protestantism

Main article: Ordination of women in Protestant churches

A key theological doctrine for most Protestants is the priesthood of all believers. 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.

However, most (although not all) Protestant denominations still ordain church leaders who have the task of equipping all believers in their Christian service.Eph. 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, such as the United Church of Canada in 1936 and the United Methodist Church in 1956.

Islam

Main articles: Women as imams and Women in Islam

Although Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders, the imam serves as a spiritual leader and religious authority. There is a current controversy among Muslims on the circumstances in which women may act as imams—that is, lead a congregation in salat (prayer). Three of the four Sunni schools, as well as many Shia, agree that a woman may lead a congregation consisting of women alone in prayer, although the Maliki school does not allow this. According to all currently existing traditional schools of Islam, a woman cannot lead a mixed gender congregation in salat (prayer). Some schools make exceptions for Tarawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives. Certain medieval scholars—including Al-Tabari (838–932), Abu Thawr (764–854), Al-Muzani (791–878), and Ibn Arabi (1165–1240)—considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafila) prayers; however, their views are not accepted by any major surviving group.

Judaism

Main article: Female rabbis

Jewish tradition and law does not presume that women have more or less of an aptitude or moral standing required of rabbis. However, it had been the longstanding practice that only men become rabbis. This practice continues to this day within the Orthodox and Hasidic communities but has been revised within non-Orthodox organizations. Reform Judaism created its first woman rabbi in 1972, Reconstructionist Judaism in 1974, and Conservative Judaism in 1985, and women in these movements are routinely granted semicha on an equal basis with men.

The issue of allowing women to become rabbis is not under active debate within the Orthodox community, though there is widespread agreement that women may often be consulted on matters of Jewish religious law. There are reports that a small number of Orthodox yeshivas have unofficially granted semicha to women, but the prevailing consensus among Orthodox leaders (as well as a small number of Conservative Jewish communities) is that it is not appropriate for women to become rabbis.

The idea that women could eventually be ordained as rabbis sparks widespread opposition among the Orthodox rabbinate. Norman Lamm, one of the leaders of Modern Orthodoxy and Rosh Yeshiva of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, totally opposes giving semicha to women. "It shakes the boundaries of tradition, and I would never allow it." (Helmreich, 1997) Writing in an article in the Jewish Observer, Moshe Y'chiail Friedman states that Orthodox Judaism prohibits women from being given semicha and serving as rabbis. He holds that the trend towards this goal is driven by sociology, and not halakha.

Shinto

While the priesthood was traditionally male in Shinto, ordination of women as Shinto priests has arisen after the abolition of State Shinto in the aftermath of World War II.

Tenrikyo

Tenrikyo was founded by a woman, Oyasama.

Some beginning dates for ordination of women

A partial list with the approximate dates of either the approval of female ordination in principle or the ordination of their first women clergy by Christian and Jewish faith groups appears below:

• Early 1800s: A fundamental belief of the Society of Friends (Quakers) has always been the existence of an element of God's spirit in every human soul. Thus all persons are considered to have inherent and equal worth, independent of their gender. This led naturally to an acceptance of female ministers. In 1660, Margaret Fell (1614–1702) published a famous pamphlet to justify equal roles for men and women in the denomination. It was titled: "Women's Speaking Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures, All Such as Speak by the Spirit and Power of the Lord Jesus And How Women Were the First That Preached the Tidings of the Resurrection of Jesus, and Were Sent by Christ's Own Command Before He Ascended to the Father (John 20:17). In the U.S., in contrast with almost every other organized religion, the Society of Friends (Quakers) has allowed women to serve as ministers since the early 1800s.
• 1853: Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained by the Congregationalist Church. However, her ordination was not recognized by the denomination. She quit the church and later became a Unitarian. The Congregationalists later merged with others to create the United Church of Christ.
• 1861: Mary A. Will was the first woman ordained in the Wesleyan Methodist Connection by the Illinois Conference. The Wesleyan Methodist Connection eventually became The Wesleyan Church.
• 1863: Olympia Brown was ordained by the Universalist denomination in 1863, in spite of a last-moment case of cold feet by her seminary which feared adverse publicity. After a decade and a half of service as a full-time minister, she became a part-time minister in order to devote more time to the fight for women's rights and universal suffrage. In 1961, the Universalists and Unitarians joined to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The UUA became the first large denomination to have a majority of female ministers.
• 1865: Salvation Army is founded, which ordained both men and women. However, there were initially rules that prohibited a woman from marrying a man who had a lower rank.
• 1879 Church of Christ, Scientist founded by a woman, Mary Baker Eddy.
• 1880: Anna Howard Shaw was the first woman ordained in the Methodist Protestant Church, which later merged with other denominations to form the United Methodist Church.
• 1888: Fidelia Gillette may have been the first ordained woman in Canada. She served the Universalist congregation in Bloomfield, Ontario, during 1888 and 1889. She was presumably ordained in 1888 or earlier. ((or))
• 1889: The Nolin Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ordained Louisa Woosley.
• 1889: Ella Niswonger was the first woman ordained in the United Brethren church, which later merged with other denominations to form the United Methodist Church.
• 1892: Anna Hanscombe is believed to be the first woman ordained by the parent bodies which formed the Church of the Nazarene in 1919.
• 1909: The Church of God (Cleveland TN) began ordaining women in 1909.
• 1911: Ann Allebach was the first Mennonite woman to be ordained. This occurred at the First Mennonite Church of Philadelphia.
• 1914: Assemblies of God was founded and ordained its first woman clergy
• 1917: The Church of England appoints female Bishop's Messengers to preach, teach and take missions in the absence of men.
• 1917: The Congregationalist Church (England and Wales) ordained their first woman, Constance Coltman (nee Todd) at the King's Weigh House, London. Its successor is the United Reformed Church (a union of the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England in 1972. Since then two more denominations have joined the union: The Reformed Churches of Christ (1982) and the Congregational Church of Scotland (2000). All of these denominations ordained women at the time of Union and continue to do so. The first woman to be appointed General Secretary of the United Reformed Church was Roberta Rominger in 2008.
• 1920's: Some Baptist denominations start ordaining women.
• 1922: The Jewish Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis stated that "Woman cannot justly be denied the privilege of ordination." However, Reform Judaism takes a few more decades to actually ordain women.
• 1922: The Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren granted women the right to be licensed into the ministry, but not to be ordained with the same status as men.
• 1929 Izabela Wiłucka in Old Catholic Mariavite Church in Poland.
• 1935: Regina Jonas was ordained privately by a German rabbi.
• 1936: United Church of Canada starts ordaining women.
• 1944: Anglican communion, Hong Kong. Florence Li Tim Oi was ordained on an emergency basis.
• 1947: Czechoslovak Hussite Church starts ordaining women.
• 1948: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark starts ordaining women.
• 1949: Old Catholic Church (in the U.S.) starts ordaining women.
• 1956: Maud K. Jensen was the first woman in a Protestant denomination to receive full clergy rights and conference membership in the Methodist Church.
• 1956: A predecessor church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ordained its first woman minister.
• 1958: Women ministers in the Church of the Brethren were given full ordination with the same status as men.
• 1960: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden started ordaining women.
• 1967: Presbyterian Church in Canada started ordaining women.
• 1971: Anglican communion, Hong Kong. Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang were the first regularly ordained priests.
• 1972: Reform Judaism starts ordaining women.
• 1972: Swedenborgian Church starts ordaining women.
• 1972: Sally Priesand became the first woman rabbi to be ordained by a theological seminary. She was ordained in the Reform tradition.
• 1970's: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• 1974: Methodist Church in the United Kingdom starts ordaining women.
• 1974: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first woman rabbi to be ordained within the Jewish Reconstructionist movement.
• 1976: Episcopal Church (11 women were ordained in Philadelphia before church laws were changed to permit ordination)
• 1976: Anglican Church in Canada ordained six female priests.
• 1976: The Rev. Pamela McGee was the first female ordained to the Lutheran ministry in Canada.
• 1977: Anglican Church of New Zealand ordained five female priests.
• 1979: The Reformed Church in America. Women had been admitted to the offices of deacon and elder in 1972.
• 1983: An Anglican woman was ordained in Kenya
• 1983: Three Anglican women were ordained in Uganda.
• 1984: Community of Christ (known at the time as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) authorized the ordination of women. This is the second largest Latter Day Saint denomination.
• 1985: According to the New York Times for 1985-FEB-14: "After years of debate, the worldwide governing body of Conservative Judaism has decided to admit women as rabbis. The group, the Rabbinical Assembly, plans to announce its decision at a news conference...at the Jewish Theological Seminary..." Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi.
• 1985: The first women deacons were ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
• 1988: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland starts ordaining women.
• 1988: Episcopal Church chooses Barbara Harris as first female bishop.
• 1990: Anglican women are ordained in Ireland.
• 1992: The Church of England passes a measure to allow women to be ordained priests.
• 1992: Anglican Church of South Africa starts ordaining women.
• 1994: The first women priests were ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
• 1994: The first women priests were ordained by the Church of England.
• 1995: Seventh-day Adventists. Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, MD ordained three women in violation of the denomination's rules.
• 1995: The Christian Reformed Church voted to allow women ministers, elders, and evangelists. In 1998-NOV, the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) suspended the CRC's membership because of this decision.
• 1998: General Assembly of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan) starts ordaining women.
• 1998: Guatemalan Presbyterian Synod starts ordaining women.
• 1998: Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands starts ordaining women.
• 1998: Some Orthodox Jewish congregations started to employ female "congregational interns." Although these 'interns' do not lead worship services, they perform some tasks usually reserved for rabbis, such as preaching, teaching, and consulting on Jewish legal matters.
• 1999: Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (ordination as either clergy or elders).
• 2000: The Baptist Union of Scotland voted to allow their churches to either allow or prohibit the ordination of women.
• 2000: The Mombasa diocese of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
• 2000: The Church of Pakistan ordained its first women deacons.
• 2005: The Lutheran Evangelical Protestant Church, (LEPC) (GCEPC) in the USA elects Nancy Kinard Drew first female Presiding Bishop.
• 2006: The Episcopal Church elects Katharine Jefferts Schori first woman Presiding Bishop, or Primate.

See also

• I Corinthians 14:34
• Women in the Bible
• Christian views of women
• Deaconess
• Episcopa Theodora
• Feminist theology
• List of women priests
• Mariavite Church
• Women as theological figures
• List of the first 32 women ordained as Church of England priests

Further reading

• Canon Law Society of America. The Canonical Implications of Ordaining Women to the Permanent Diaconate, 1995. ISBN 0–943616–71–9.
• Davies, J. G. "Deacons, Deaconesses, and Minor Orders in the Patristic Period," Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 1963, v. 14, p. 1–23.
• Elsen, Ute E. Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies, Liturgical Press, 2000. ISBN 0–8146–5950–0.
• Grudem, Wayne. Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth: An Analysis of Over 100 Disputed Questions, Multnomah Press, 2004. 1-57673-840-X.
• Gryson, Roger. The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, Liturgical Press, 1976. ISBN 0–8146–0899-X. Translation of: Le ministère des femmes dans l'Église ancienne, J. Duculot, 1972.
• LaPorte, Jean. The Role of Women in Early Christianity, Edwin Mellen Press, 1982. ISBN 0–88946–549–5.
• Madigan, Kevin, and Carolyn Osiek. Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0–8018–7932–9.
• Martimort, Aimé Georges, Deaconesses: An Historical Study, Ignatius Press, 1986, ISBN 0–89870–114–7. Translation of: Les Diaconesses: Essai Historique, Edizioni Liturgiche, 1982.
• Miller, Patricia Cox. Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts, Catholic University of America Press, 2005. ISBN 0–8132–1417–3.
• Wijngaards, John. Women Deacons in the Early Church: Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates, Herder & Herder, 2002, 2006. ISBN 0–8245–2393–8.
• Zagano, Phyllis. Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church, Herder & Herder, 2000. ISBN 978–0824518325.
• Zagano, Phyllis. "Catholic Women Deacons: Present Tense," Worship 77:5 (September 2003) 386–408.

External links

• Women as Clergy: When some faith groups started to ordain women—including many Christian and Jewish Faith Groups. — 'For' ordination of women.
• episcopa—women bishops Photo blog about women bishops in Christian churches.
• Sarah Sentilles [1]—a doctoral candidate in theology at Harvard and author of A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit (Harcourt, 2008) which addresses the struggles and triumphs of women who respond to the call to ministry. See also Tavis Smiley interview with Sarah Sentilles
• Http://www.womenpriests.org.
• The Right Reverend Eric Kemp - Daily Telegraph obituary
• http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Buddhist

• Ordination of women—Buddhism
• Challenge to Thai Sangha's ban on women—Christian Science monitor
• "1st International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the Sangha: Bhikshuni Vinaya and Ordination Lineages," Hamburg 2007

Christian

Non-Denominational For

• The Church of Living Water
• The Union Of Bible Theology

Evangelical—For

• Christians for Biblical Equality—Egalitarian Evangelical perspective on gender issues
• Can Women Preach? by James H. Boyd

Evangelical—Against

• Forward in Faith - Traditional Anglicans in the Diocese of Lincoln
• Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood—Complementarian Evangelical perspective on gender issues
• Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth: An Analysis of Over 100 Disputed Questions pdf by Wayne Grudem of CBMW
• (See also Presbyterian churches—Against, below)

Presbyterian churches—For

• Women Elders—From a Presbyterian Church (USA) site
• Celebrating the anniversary of the recognition of women's call to ordained ministry

Presbyterian churches—Against

• "Report of the Committee on Hermeneutics of Women in Ordained Office" submitted to the 54th GA of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1987) (.html)
• "Report on Women in Office" submitted to the 55th GA of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1988) (.html)
• Position Paper Approved by the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (.pdf)
• Rev. Rich Lusk, "Ministry, Women, and Liturgy," May 2000 (.pdf)
• Rev. James B. Jordan, "Liturgical Man, Liturgical Woman (Part 1)," Rite Reasons No. 86, May 2004 (.htm)
• Rev. James B. Jordan, "Liturgical Man, Liturgical Woman (Part 2)," Rite Reasons No. 87, June 2004 (.htm)

Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic—For

• Womenpriests.org Website advocating the ordination of women to the Roman Catholic priesthood. This website sets out both sides of the argument and provides all Vatican documents about women's ordination.
• Http://www.womenpriests.org/circles/[2] is an international discussion board about the case for women's ordination
• Phyllis Zagano, "Grant Her Your Spirit"—America, Vol. 192 No. 4, February 7, 2005.

Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic—Against

• Forward in Faith—Anglo-Catholic Anglicans in Opposition to Women in the Priesthood
• Priestesses in the Church?—Article on the ordination of women by C. S. Lewis

Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic—Balanced

• article on Deaconesses from Zenit News Agency.
• Http://www.womenpriests.org[3]

Eastern Orthodox—For

• Valerie A. Karras, "Women in the Eastern Church"—St. Nina Quarterly, v. 1, n. 1.
• Teva Regule, "An Interview with Bishop Kallistos Ware"—St. Nina Quarterly, v. 1, n. 3.
• Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald, "Orthodox Women and Pastoral Praxis"—St. Nina Quarterly, v. 3, n. 2.

Eastern Orthodox—Against

• "How Not to Read the Fathers: In Response to Ms. Karras"—Archbishop Chrysostomos, from Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XIII, No. 2, pp. 10-12.
• "What Beef Have Women Theologians with Divine Order? Orthodox Theologies of Women and Ordained Ministry"—Rebecca Herman