Women as Clergy

Women in religious office seems to have piqued my interest over the past week or so. As such, I would like to post a couple more articles pertaining to women in religious ministry.

"When Churches Started to Ordain Women"
"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)."

There follows a time-line of womens' role in religious ministry globally.

"Are There Female Ministers In the Bible?"
"But being a servant in these churches was understood. Everyone could serve (diakoneo), whether it was to get the hall ready for services, or to participate in socials and fund raising! Everyone among the "laity" pitched in to get the job done in the local congregations. Among the elite, it was possible to become a deacon (a male diakonos) or a deaconess (a female diakonos), but only a male could become a minister (diakonos) -- a local elder or a pastor."

"Changing Female Religious Leadership in Christianity"
"Christianity in America has had a gender paradox for a long time. Female church adherents have been predominant in the churches, but males have dominated church leadership. As women female clergy rapidly increased their numbers during the 1970s, however,but the history of female leadership in Christianity is not monolithic. By focusing upon on a the historically nationwide American Methodism as a case study, this thesis discusses how female religious leadership has historically changed and developed throughout the history of American religious society."

"Female Religious Congregations"
A list of female congregations.

"Female Religious"
A number of essays about women and religion.

Female Rabbis

This was a totally new concept to me - why, you might ask, should it be considering the number of females being ordained in the Anglican Ministry.

Here's a little article that I came across just recently:
From the Buffalo News: "Female Rabbis Common Today"
"Q: Why does the Jewish faith allow female rabbis? Has this always been a part of the Jewish tradition? If not, when did the change take place? I don’t remember females in this role in the Old Testament.

A: There were no women rabbis in the Hebrew Bible because there were no rabbis in the Bible. Rabbis emerged as the leaders and teachers of Judaism after the priestly Judaism died with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in the first century.

The opposition of rabbis to ordaining women was based on their ruling that women are exempt from all commandments that must be fulfilled at a specific time. This exemption was not the result of sexism but rather of not wanting to put women in a position where they’d face a conflict between their duties as mothers and their duty to fulfill a particular commandment. No one wanted women to have to leave a child to obey another commandment.

The problem, however, was that in Jewish law, you can’t obey a commandment that you’re not obligated to obey, and because women were not obligated to pray at a certain time and read from the Torah at a certain time like men, they couldn’t simply decide to do these things when they had no other family obligations. So, because women could not read from the Torah, lead the congregation in prayer, or be counted in the group of 10 Jewish men needed to pray communally (called a minyan), they could not be rabbis.

After the rise of liberal Judaism at the beginning of the 19th century in Germany, and then in America, a more inclusive view of the role of women was adopted. Now women and men could sit together during prayer. Now women could have bat mitzvahs and could become rabbis.

However, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear and have more to do with sexism in America than anything in the new understanding of Judaism, no women were ordained until Sally Priesand became a rabbi in 1972. I had the honor of being ordained with her at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary of Reform Judaism. Sally just retired from the pulpit to become Rabbi Emerita of the only synagogue she ever served, Monmouth Reform Temple, Tinton Falls, N. J.

Today a large percentage of rabbinical and cantorial students at HUC-JIR are women. Women can be ordained as rabbis in the seminary of Conservative Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism. Even some Orthodox rabbis are looking into ways to accommodate both the demands of traditional Jewish law and those of parents who want their daughters to have the same spiritual horizons in Judaism as their sons.

All this began with Sally Priesand, whose accomplishment reminds us all that one person can make a difference in the ancient wisdom traditions that must balance responsiveness to what the world is learning with respect for the accumulated wisdom of the past. God bless you, Sally!"

For more about Sally Priesand

- Jewish Women & the Feminist Revolution

- Nations First Female Rabbi Retiring
"Sally J. Priesand, the first U.S. woman rabbi, arrived at Jewish seminary nearly 40 years ago determined to fulfill her dream to become a teacher of her faith. Many people thought she came for a different reason. Now as she prepares to retire more than three decades later, Priesand is widely seen as a role model who's helped change contemporary Judaism."

- Sally Priesand - Wikipedia

Shirley Bridge

1922 - 2008
Philanthropist & Womens' Advocate

Shirely passed away late last month - she had been battling cancer for many years - and it was a battle she ultimately lost. Her passing did not go unnoticed - and she will be missed by those whose lives she touched.

From an article by Casey McNerthney:
"When Shirley Bridge was married six decades ago, it was common for women to give up their professions and stay home to support their families. But the former Shirley Selesnick told her fiance she would marry him on the condition that she would continue her career, being one of the state's first female pharmacists. And when the rabbi was rehearsing their wedding ceremony, she had him change the phrase "love, honor and obey" to "love, honor and cherish."

Bridge, a lifelong women's advocate, showed the same passion for philanthropy and Democratic ideals. She helped develop Seattle AIDS housing, brought improvements to Harborview Medical Center and her work benefited the Northwest School for Hearing-Impaired Children, among other organizations.

Bridge was a founding member of the Women's Endowment Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and was past president of the Seattle Women's Commission. After serving as the co-chairwoman of the campaign that established the Bailey-Boushay House, a nationally recognized hospice primarily for AIDS patients, a West Seattle AIDS housing facility was named in her honor. The Women's Endowment Foundation created the Shirley Bridge Power of One Award. And she received numerous other local awards for her volunteer work.

Bridge battled five primary cancers after getting her first diagnosis in 1955."

You can read more about this amazing woman:
Seattle Times
"Mrs. Bridge was a mentor and role model for decades to women in leadership positions in the Seattle area, Lieberman said. She also served on the boards of the Seattle Opportunities Industrial Council, the University of Washington Development Board, Women's Law Center and Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Decades ahead of her time in the push for women's rights, she had opted not to promise to "obey" her husband at their 1948 wedding, but vowed to "love, honor and cherish" him, according to a Jewish Women's Archive article."

Seattle Post
"After serving as the co-chairwoman of the campaign that established the Bailey-Boushay House, a nationally recognized hospice primarily for AIDS patients, a West Seattle AIDS housing facility was named in her honor. The Women's Endowment Foundation created the Shirley Bridge Power of One Award. And she received numerous other local awards for her volunteer work."

Bride's "white lie"

Yes, the saga of the bride who was not the virgin she purported to be continues.

Further to: "Virgin Appeal" - from Australian newspaper "The Age":
"The ruling ending the Muslim couple's union has stunned France and raised concerns the country's much-cherished secular values are losing ground to cultural traditions from its fast-growing immigrant communities.

The decision also exposed the silent shame borne by some Muslim women who transgress long-held customs demanding proof of virginity on the wedding night.

In its ruling, the court concluded the woman had misrepresented herself as a virgin and that, in this particular marriage, virginity was a prerequisite.

But in treating the case as a breach of contract, the ruling was decried by critics who said it undermined decades of progress in women's rights. Marriage, they said, was reduced to the status of a commercial transaction in which women could be discarded by husbands claiming to have discovered hidden defects in them.

What began as a private matter "concerns all the citizens of our country and notably women," a statement from her ministry said.

The hitch is that both the young woman and the man at the centre of the drama are opposed to an appeal, according to their lawyers. The names of the woman, a student in her 20s, and the man, an engineer in his 30s, have not been disclosed.

The young woman's lawyer, Charles-Edouard Mauger, said she was distraught by the dragging out of the humiliating case. In an interview on Europe 1 radio, he quoted her as saying: "I don't know who's trying to think in my place. I didn't ask for anything. ... I wasn't the one who asked for the media attention, for people to talk about it, and for this to last so long."

The issue is particularly distressing for France because the government has fought to maintain strong secular traditions as demographics change. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the country of 64 million, the largest Muslim population in Western Europe."

So, are we championing the rights of a woman in the face of cultural tradition ...... and if so, what right do we have to do so. The woman in question is not seeking to appeal the decision - neither is the young man in question. So, what right do we have ... ???

Meet the Flintstones ....

It was seem that that old image of the "cave man", club over shoulder, dragging off his woman by her hair really isn't that far from the truth. That is according to the latest theory based on archaeological evidence found at a mass grave in Talheim.

From an article by Roger Highfield, in "The Telegraph":
"Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago."

Previous tests proved inconclusive; however a "new method was used to separate the victims by geographic origin, it was clear that the local group was special - local because it was the only group with any young children, and special because it was the only group without adult women, despite being the largest group.

The researchers conclude the absence of local females indicates that they were spared execution and captured instead which may have indeed been the primary motivation for the attack.

German experts determined that the majority had been killed by a blow to the left side of the head, suggesting the victims were bound and killed, probably with a stone axe. Others may have been killed from arrow-wounds from behind as if the victims had tried to flee."

Interesting theories .....

Roger Highfield has written a couple of other articles that may be of some interest:

Men age faster "because of Stone Age sex"

"Now it seems that the reason is that our prehistoric male ancestors kept female harems and fought over them to procreate: because male life was nasty, brutish and short, evolutionary forces focused on making males big and strong, rather than long lived.

The discovery is reported today [17th October 2007] in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences by Prof Tim Clutton-Brock of Cambridge University and Dr Kavita Isvaran of the Centre for Ecological Studies, Bangalore, India.

Thus the very fact that men age faster and die younger than women tells us something about human Stone Age society. "The fact that there are sex differences in the life spans of men and women suggests that our ancestors were not monogamous," said Prof Clutton-Brock."

Our male ancestors had harems of women

"Our prehistoric male ancestors kept female harems and fought over them to procreate: because the potential number of offspring was greater for males, competition for mates was severe. As a result, evolutionary forces focused on making males big and strong, rather than long lived.

Prof Tim Clutton-Brock of Cambridge University and Dr Kavita Isvaran of the Centre for Ecological Studies, Bangalore, India found that the difference in lifespan between males and females in creatures such as red deer, prairie dogs, lions, baboons, geese, mongooses, wild dogs, beavers and others grows in direct proportion to the degree to which an animal's society is polygynous, that is a society where one male enjoys the attentions of several female breeding partners.

Thus the very fact that men age faster and die younger than women suggests human Stone Age society was polygynous."

"Virgin" Appeal

Further to my earlier post on the "Myth of the Modern Virgin" - it would seem that an appeal in underway in the case of a Muslim man annulling his marriage on the grounds of his wife's lack of virginity.

France's Justice Minister, Rachida Dati, has asked that this case be appealled. The verdict caused a furore in France when it was handed down, and now it has made international headlines.

From the "International Herald Tribune":
"Politicians, feminists and human rights activists have denounced the court's ruling as an affront to the legal equality of men and women and a violation of a woman's privacy.

"The annulment of a marriage by the court in Lille has sparked lively social debate. This private affair goes beyond the relations between two people and concerns all citizens of our country, especially women," the justice ministry said.

Dati has lodged a request for the public prosecutor's office to file an appeal against the court's judgement, the ministry said in a statement.

In an online interview broadcast by the Figaro newspaper, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that while he understood the reason behind the judge's decision, the case merited an appeal."

Other newspapers ran the story:
"The Australian" ~~~ "The Sydney Morning Herald" ~~~ "The Star" ~~~ "The Australian" (May 30th edition) ~~~ "The Irish Times" ~~~ "BBC News" ~~~ "Arab News" ~~~ "Gulf Daily News" ~~~ "The Times" ~~~ "Fox News" ~~~ "Dawn"

Miracles of Mother Mary MacKillop

From "The Herald Sun" newspaper:
"The Vatican has launched a judicial inquiry into the case of an Australian woman who claims to have been cured of inoperable lung cancer in 1993 through the intercession of saint-in-waiting Mary MacKillop.

Two doctors will examine the case for evidence of a second miracle needed for sainthood. The first miracle, which led to the beatification of Mary MacKillop, was the cure of another woman of leukaemia in 1961. In 1995 Pope John Paul beatified Mary MacKillop, earning her the title of Blessed (Mother) Mary.

The latest development is the closest the Josephite order, which Mary MacKillop founded, has come to meeting the requirement for a documented second miracle, Fairfax newspapers report."


More on Mary MacKillop:
Blessed Mary MacKillop - Sisters of St. Joseph website
Mary MacKillop in Portland
Blessed Mary MacKillop
Mary MacKillop - wikipedia website

Bishop Darling

Its official! Barbara Darling was consecrated Bishop yesterday in front of a pack congregation at Melbourne's St Pauls Cathedral.

Barney Zwartz from "The Age" newspaper reports:
"As Melbourne's Archbishop Philip Freier presented newly consecrated Bishop Barbara Darling to the congregation, there was wild applause, topped by triumphant ululations by the Sudanese choir from her Dandenong church.

Bishop Darling, one of the pioneers of women's ministry in Australia, had just become Melbourne's first woman bishop, Australia's second (by nine days), and only the 24th woman Anglican bishop in history.

Nineteen bishops were present for the historic service, including Australia's first woman bishop, Perth assistant bishop Kay Goldsworthy, Australian primate Philip Aspinall, a former primate and Melbourne archbishop in Keith Rayner, another former Melbourne archbishop in Peter Watson, and former Governor-General and Brisbane archbishop Peter Hollingworth.

The new bishop herself could barely be heard over the pealing of the cathedral bells. "I'm excited, overwhelmed and feel very supported in prayer by many people," she said. She returns to the cathedral today to lead the communion service."


From "A Triumph of Faith" by Gary Tippet:
"When he Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, consecrated Barbara Brinsley Darling as a bishop yesterday — little more than a week after Kay Goldsworthy became the nation's first female bishop in Perth — there was special background music.

It was, in the exultant words of leading Anglican laywoman Dr Muriel Porter, the sound of stained-glass ceilings shattering.

For more than three decades, Anglican women have been battling towards such a moment and Darling, now 60, has blazed the trail. In 1975 she came to Melbourne to study for her licentiate in theology at Ridley College, the Anglican theological college at Parkville, where she became librarian and the first woman to be given tenure as a lecturer.

She was one of the "trained women workers" the Melbourne diocese set up in the early 1980s to prepare for women's ordination, one of the first women deacons in 1986, and one of the first women priests in 1992. In 1995 she was the first woman elected a clerical canon of St Paul's Cathedral where until now she has been senior canon as well as being vicar of St James' Dandenong.

For such pioneers the road has been rocky and often deeply painful. Every step has been contested and protested. In 1976, when Darling preached her first sermon at Ridley, some male students walked out. In 1986, when both she and Goldsworthy were ordained as deacons in Melbourne, there was an attempt to have their ordinations ruled invalid, along with threats of schism, court challenges and even bomb scares.

She will never forget her ordination as a priest at St Paul's in December 1992.

Yet the opposition continued for more than a decade until Dr Porter led a challenge to the Appellate Tribunal to prove that, given women could be priests, there was no legal impediment to them becoming bishops. The tribunal decided in favour late last year. It was only a matter of time before the first female bishops would be named.

The next challenge, says Darling, is how women function as bishops. Will they be doing it the same way as the men or will they bring something new and different?"

Myth of the Modern Virgin

In this modern day and age, are women being pressured to be "pure"or to at least portray the persona of being "pure" on their wedding day???

It would seem that Virginity in a bride is most desirable. According to a recent poll of conducted by Australian mens' magazine "FHM": "Of 57,000 men polled ...... 28 per cent hoped to marry a virgin, while 41 percent wanted a bride who had five partners or fewer, and just 5 per cent wanted a bride who had slept with more than 15 men."

The survey ran for a period of two weeks in May; and of the men who were surveyed, it was found that most were in their "late 20s, who had jobs and were university educated."

Further, according to the article by Caroline Marcus in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper today:
"But the ideal may be far from reality, with 2005 research from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships showing that only 11percent of women and 5percent of men aged 16 to 35 had only slept with their current partner. The same study showed Australian men aged 30 to 39 had on average 9.5 sexual partners and women in that age group, 4.7.

University of New England sexuality expert Dr Gail Hawkes said the response was "astounding". "You would not be surprised if we saw that in 1960, not 2008," Dr Hawkes said."

The Brisbane Courier Mail ran a story from France yesterday in which a man divorced his wife on the grounds that she was not a virgin. Apparently there was a huge uproar when it was discovered that a "court had annulled the union of two Muslims because the husband said the wife was not the virgin she had claimed to be. Politicians, feminists and human rights activists denounced the verdict, handed down last month but reported in the national press only on Thursday, as an affront to the legal equality of men and women and a violation of a woman's privacy.

The hoodwinked husband's lawyer responded just as forcibly that civil marriage was a legal contract. The court invalidated this one because the wife had lied about what French law calls an "essential quality" of a contracting party, he said.

Prominent feminist Elisabeth Badinter said the courts should defend Muslim women, not pressure them. "The end result will be that some Muslim girls will rush to hospitals to have their hymens sewn back together again," she told France Inter radio.

Muslims make up about eight per cent of the population in France, which has vigorously defended its secular system against their occasional religious demands by banning Islamic headscarves in the civil service and in state schools.

Xavier Labbee, the husband's lawyer, denied that religion had anything to do with the verdict. "The law says that when there is an error concerning essential qualities of one of the spouses, an annulment can be sought," he said on LCI television.

The same clause has been used in French courts to annul marriages in which one person discovered only afterwards that the other had concealed a divorce or had a physical or mental disability that made a normal sexual life impossible.

The rector of a large mosque in the northern city of Lille, where the case was tried, also denied Islam played any role. "

In the US, I have seen a number of programs in which young people are undertaking vows of celibacy (not necessarily virginity) in an attempt to retain some sort of control over their own morality. Rather than having someone attempt to force their moral views upon them, these young folk are steering their own course.

Are we returning to a time when moral standards were a lot different and stricter than they are today??? Is that essentially a bad thing???