Inviting Ourselves to the Table’ – the Contributions of Feminist Ecclesiology and Feminist Theology
2.4. African Feminist Theological Considerations
69 outside the community because they would be deemed to be excluded from the community in question. This is a difficult issue to side step as any human community has both components; those who are part of it and those who are outside of it.
In African terms, however, the sense of community seems to be more fluid. Those who are present form the community and when others join, they too become part of the community. This was briefly discussed under the section of African hospitality. Although there is a distinct pride in African cultural identity, there is also a pride in extending hospitality and this makes African community warm and embracing.
At times, however, community in Africa has also become distinctly exclusive, as Oduyoye pointed out, and has been witnessed in the horrific genocide that took place in Rwanda and other countries in recent years. Ethnic identity in Africa is a topic that lends itself to further study but it falls outside of the immediate scope of this thesis.
Mary Tororeiy (2005:167) believes, with other African feminist theologians, that the Church is the place wherein people are called to become community, as
… a place where men and women have equal status, dignity and rights as images of the divine, with equal access to the magnanimous graces and gifts of the spirit. It is where each and everyone enrich the discipleship community of equals with different experiences, vocations and talents.
This vision of the Church does hold out the hope for a more holistic community in Africa as well as the hope for transformation of community in the wider world.
Some of the additional concerns are discussed in the next section, as these affect women in the specific context of African feminist theology and ecclesiology.
70 Oduyoye (2005:146) personally tells the story of this lay woman who
… warned a group of women studying theology: “If you think you are going to seek ordination, to become ministers so as to come and boss us around the way the men do, then forget it. We will not support your quest.”
Oduyoye had to ask herself why women are studying theology. If ours is not a power- hungry agenda, then why do we want to be ordained? Many denominations, in Western countries and in Southern Africa too, do ordain women but this debate is relevant for everyone. In the MCSA the doors to ordination are open for women and they have been open for thirty-five years this year (2011) but sufficient supporting gender education has not yet taken place.52 Consequently, women ministers continue to be marginalised.
Ordination is not yet open to all African women but the ordination of women and the clericalism debate continues to be rigorously engaged. Feminist theologians continue to ask questions, such as ‘What are the alternatives to clericalism?’ (Radford Ruether 2005) and ‘How can women be church and participate fully?’ (Nadar & Phiri (eds) 2005).
The call for women to stay in the Church is an important one because the Church still is the institution within which the Christian religion is practised and where people are nurtured in their faith. Many small groups of women have left the institutional Church and these groups meet in homes to worship and to share their stories with one another. This might be one alternative model of being church but the heritage and theological resources of the institutional body of the Church make it rich and it would be to everyone’s advantage if the whole Body of Christ could make progress towards an alternative model of being church. This would indeed be the option of feminist ecclesiology.
African women theologians, according to Oduyoye and Kanyoro (2006:1 – first published in 1992), have
… come to realize that as long as men and foreign researchers remain the authorities on culture, rituals, and religion, African women will continue to be spoken of as if they were dead.
African women are not dead – we are very much alive and present in the Church. Our contributions to theological discourses are meaningful, to which the scholarship of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians is testifying.
52 The gender task team was given a mandate to provide gender education for Societies and Circuits.
71 Although the term ‘African’ is complex because Africa comprises various cultures and many ethnic identities, African feminist theology specifically addresses the unique response of African women theologians to patriarchy and male-dominant religion and theology. I understand this to stress that there should be an equal right to participate in all things, there should be co-responsibility and shared power between women and men.
Chidili, writes that African feminist theology supports a “shared glory and equal respect for both genders” and denies that “the liberation of men and women comes from the uncritical acceptance of a heritage that enthrones hierarchies and declares patriarchy to be the will of God”.53
African woman theologians are clear that male-dominance and gender exclusive ecclesiological practices in the Church are unacceptable. African feminist theologians strive to do contextual theology in order to ensure that women’s perspectives are considered and that women’s theological and spiritual needs are met. The contributors to Ragbag Theologies address some of the key feminist theological perspectives for faith and praxis in the Southern African context. Sarojini Nadar (2009:147) writes about The Circle in chapter 14 and although she essentially pays tribute to Denise Ackermann, in whose honour the book was published, she also recognises the valuable contribution of Mercy Amba Oduyoye, who founded The Circle in 1989 because of
… the lack of theological literature being produced by Africans at the time, but [she was] even more frustrated by the lack of theological literature being produced by African women about women and for women.
This lack of scholarly theological material by women for women has since been addressed and publications, such as Ragbag Theologies, celebrate these achievements.
Liberation theology had been shaping African theologians’ thinking for at least three decades by the late 1980s but even within this liberation discourse women were being marginalised and excluded. The patriarchal system, within which African culture and tradition also developed, was not automatically addressed by the liberation movements.
More will be said about the patriarchal system in chapter four but it is essential to recognise that the MCSA was also influenced by the liberation movements, often without its male
53 African feminist theologian and educator:
Pedagogy of human dignity. <http://fordham.bepress.com/dissertations/AAI3081402>
[Accessed 3 May 2011].
72 leaders giving heed to the continued exclusion of women in the Church. Nadar (2009:154) highlights that Ackermann “is clear and adamant that, for all its difficulties, there is a crucial need to engage with men”. This thesis supports that desire in the hope that continued engagement with male leaders in the Church will bear fruit and that women will be freed up to exercise their gifts and be encouraged to reach their full potential, both as ministers and as members in the MCSA.
2.5 . Conclusion
Even though those engaged in the study of ecclesiology are still mostly men and are therefore at the decision-making table in the churches, we invited ourselves to ‘the Table’
in this chapter, using the tools provided by feminist ecclesiology and African feminist theology, such as hospitality, the Manyano movement, women’s ordination, ministers’
wives and the cultural community. This established the theoretical framework for this research. The theological terms used in this thesis were explained and introduced. The insights of African feminist theologians support the hypothesis that the Christian Church, in general, is steeped in patriarchy and the subsequent discussions in this chapter endeavoured to show that patriarchy is an unhelpful system.
Feminist ecclesiology was juxtaposed with traditional ecclesiology, the differences were examined and the narrative approach of African feminist ecclesiology was discussed.
Five specific features of African feminist ecclesiology, namely hospitality, women’s ordination, the churchwomen’s organisations, ministers’ wives and cultural community, formed the basis for an ecclesiological discussion on women’s experiences as being church in Africa. I paid attention to some subsequent considerations, from an African feminist theological perspective, such as clericalism and other ways of reading the Bible.
I now turn to the research design and methodology of this research project.
73