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As a feminist – someone who wants to see women and men treated equally – it is a challenge to feel that I truly belong in the Church of England, despite being baptised, confirmed, ordained as a priest and inducted as a vicar. This is because I am expected to support the flourishing of those who claim God creates men to undertake leadership roles and not women; that ‘benevolent sexism’ is God’s planned ordering of the sexes. And, at the same time, I am expected to flourish as a female Christian who believes that God has called her, and many other women, to leadership roles.
Although individual opinions will always differ, can the Church as an institution say both that women can and should be leaders in the Church and that it’s fine to say they can’t be? And where does this leave lay people on the receiving end of this teaching – especially women and girls? Is it OK that some people are taught one thing and others the other? Is it OK that some women will not be able to discern the gifts God has given them, if they just happen to be in the ‘wrong’ church? And can this situation go on forever, without impacting both the well-being of women and the whole Church?
We all know the arguments. You can choose certain verses in scripture and argue, as some do, that it would be lovely to treat women equally with men but we can’t because, look, it says in this letter written to the early Church two thousand years ago that they should keep quiet and let their husbands tell them what to do. But, on the other hand, if we look both at other verses and more importantly the broader message of the Gospel and scripture, we can argue that God is free to give whatever gifts He chooses to whomever He chooses, irrespective of their sex.
One way to try to resolve this argument might be to trust, as Modern Church does, that divine revelation has not come to an end and that religious beliefs can and should develop in the light of new insights. And that we can discern a direction of travel, from scripture, that helps us answer the question about women in leadership today.
So let’s do that. Jesus talks repeatedly about there being no first or last in the Kingdom of God, that the Kingdom is in a world that is lived out the way God hopes and intends it to be, a Kingdom of equality. Jesus says that one group should not ‘lord it’ over another group. Of course, complementarians, who support the so-called distinctive roles of men and women (men can be given all gifts and roles, women only some), would say that women may not be equal but they are equally valued – and it’s good for them to be led by good Christian men.
But would Jesus agree? Did he avoid speaking to Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday so that the first witness of the resurrection could be a man who would have the appropriate authority to proclaim that He was alive? Did he explain to Mary of Bethany that, although she was of equal value to his male disciples, her role was to help her sister in the kitchen?
Furthermore, if God is not calling women to leadership roles in the Church, are the 4,000 women currently serving as clergy in the Church of England, and those who appointed them, all deluded?
The truth is that, while social media is currently awash with the Church congratulating itself on thirty years of female clergy, the Church is getting away with discriminating against women, and limiting female leadership, at every level of the organisation.
We continue to allow churches to say ‘no’ to female priests applying to be their vicars; to say ‘no’ to female priests blessing the bread and wine in services; and to say ‘no’ to female bishops (and bishops who have ordained women) and request a special male bishop.
There is no requirement for churches to be transparent about these things, so often people attend churches, and support them financially for many years, without knowing that they are churches that discriminate against women.
Many large inner-city churches, such as All Souls Langham Place and St Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, St Andrews the Great in Cambridge, and St Ebbe’s in Oxford, do not allow a woman to be their vicar.
One in twelve bishops in the Church of England does not fully accept women as priests or church leaders.
The appointments system for diocesan bishops is skewed so that only two out of the last eleven appointments have been women.
And the situation is getting worse.
Every year more and more clergy are appointed who don’t recognise female priests or actively restrict women’s leadership.
Women and the Church (WATCH) is campaigning for the simple principle that women and men should be treated equally in the Church of England. We are sponsoring the Not Equal Yet Conference on Saturday 20 April at St John’s Church Waterloo in an effort to restart the conversation about women’s inequality in the Church of England and to find a generous way of bringing the provisions that permit this to an end.
The lead speaker is The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, who has spoken publicly in recent months about the constant everyday humiliation that women in the Church experience.
Other speakers will look at the challenge of being the Established Church while discriminating; how the current arrangements have fractured the Church rather than brought unity; how opinions on limiting women’s ministry arise from social factors more than theology; and the deleterious effects on the well-being of women that come from living and working in an institution that discriminates on the grounds of sex.
Having a Church that treats women and men equally is not only just, but it is true to the Gospel. Furthermore, women throughout our world suffer hugely through systems of male privilege and it is hard to call out this injustice authentically when our Church itself continues to discriminate, and condones teaching that women need to be under the authority of men.
If you would like to attend the conference, there is more information here and you can book tickets here.
Rev Martine Oborne, Chair of WATCH
