7.3 Gender representation in the organizational structure of ACK
7.3.2 Organizational structure of the ACK Diocese of Nairobi
bishops, all diocesan treasurers or accountants, provincial accountant, provincial treasurer and company secretary. Although the names of the members are not listed, it is not difficult to ascertain that the committee is male dominated particularly because its membership consists of all the bishops, the provincial accountant, provincial treasurer, the current Board chairman and secretary, who are all men.
Vicars199 47 5 Source: ACK Diocese of Nairobi Staff Establishment August 2009
The above organizational structure shows that women clergy constitute only about 5% of the total number of vicars in ACK Diocese of Nairobi.
In sum, it is evident from the above chart and tables that the organization of the ACK is highly structured and hierarchical. The hierarchy is male dominated with men holding the highest positions in the hierarchy. It mimics the position of men as the heads of the church in the history of the Christian tradition, right from the hierarchy put in place by Paul in 1 Cor 11:3. Paul’s hierarchy reflected the authority of the paterfamilias in the Roman home and empire. Paul used this hierarchy to privilege male headship, both at the family and the church level.200 In fact, the structure of the ACK mimics the language of the Roman Empire with regard to the role of the bishop, who is described as “the head of the family” (the church).201
Insofar as the organizational structure of the Church was patterned on that of Roman society (and its pattern was consciously adopted for diocesan organization), woman was deprived of her legitimate Christian freedom... Has not the time come for the Church to In the Roman Empire, the family structure, with the father (paterfamilias) as the head, provided a model after which the empire was patterned with the emperor as the great paterfamilias (see chapter three).
Consequently, the woman continues to be subordinated by these imperial structures just like a woman in the Roman Empire. My argument finds support from Tavard (1973:202) who rightly states that:
199Vicar-Head of the parish. The parish is the smallest administrative unit in the ACK.
200 A careful investigation of the trajectory of the church structures, right from the early church, and how the social stratification of the Roman Empire may have influenced their formation, is an area of study which is beyond the scope of my current study. In this study, I am interested in examining how 1 Cor 11: 1-16 is informed by the Roman imperial ideology of gender relationship, and how this text has continued to influence the perceptions of the image of God in male and female as reflected in gender constructions in the history of the Christian tradition up to the current ACK, assessing gender construction in the ACK hierarchy as only one of these areas.
201 See the role of the bishop number ‘j’ in “The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council” 1988 :61.
Indeed even The Anglican Church of Kenya Constitution (2002:7-8) supposes that the bishop is male because the language, used to describe his duties is entirely masculine. He is, for instance, described as ‘father’ and ‘brother’ and the pronouns used for him are masculine (see The Anglican Church of Kenya Constitution 2002:9-10).
reverse its compromise with the society of the Roman Empire… Why prolong now an ambiguity that resulted in the first place from a necessary compromise with the society of the Roman Empire?
The consequences of under-representation of women in the church hierarchy are obvious. The views of the few women representatives are likely to be overshadowed, judgments made in meetings are not gender balanced and, generally, the views of women who constitute the majority of the church’s population are underrepresented. Furthermore, this under-representation serves as evidence of distortion of the perception of Imago Dei in a woman by limiting her full potential to serve God.
One of the areas in which under-representation of women in the church hierarchy has been felt strongly in the recent past, was lack of women’s voices in the then on-going debates about the Proposed Draft Kenyan Constitution. On 29th April 2010, the ACK House of Bishops formally declared its opposition to the Draft Constitution, calling for amendments of two contentious issues202 (A. Kagiri 2010:1). This was despite the effort of the Draft to create gender parity in many of its sections if the Constitution became law. One of the areas in which the Draft created gender parity was that of land. The bill guaranteed equal access to land and the security of land rights through “elimination of gender discrimination in law, customs and practices related to land and property in land” 203
202 The church was calling for amendment on the issue of abortion on which it argued that the Draft Constitution did
not protect the life of the unborn despite the statement in the Draft that “abortion is not permitted.” The second contentious issue was the inclusion of Khadhi (Muslim) courts in the Draft Constitutions, which the church interpreted as a favour to one religion (see A. Kagiri, “Kenya Anglicans reject Draft Constitution,” 2010.
(see The Proposed Constitution of Kenya, 6th May, 2010). According to the draft, matrimonial rights of women, both during and after marriage, were also to be protected. This would enable women to own matrimonial property, which was under ownership of their husbands in the then Constitution (see “Proposed Constitution: What Women Stand to
203This is an improvement on the long existing Constitution in which women’s ownership of property has been governed by statutory law, customary laws, and religious law so that most women have access/possession of land but do not legally own it (see Kameri-Mbote, “Women, Land Rights and the Environment: The Kenyan Experience,”2006.
16/7/2009, pp. 1-8.
Gain,”2010 regrettable when such and other major decisions which affect the lives of Kenyan women, both born and unborn are made. Fortunately, this Proposed Constitution won at the August 2010 referendum. It is hoped that with the new Kenyan law, the long history of women’s suffering under patriarchal domination will not be prolonged further.
The ACK is however to be commended for its move to offer women levels of training, equal to those of men,204
204 Every ordained clergy, whether male or female, in the Diocese of Nairobi for instance, holds at least a diploma in theology. The current bishop, the RT Rev. Peter Njoka encourages both men and women clergy to advance their theological education and gives opportunities to those who seek it, regardless of gender.
opportunities for further studies, and, above all, to ordain them and to place a few of them in the church hierarchy. A few of the ordained women are holding top decision- making positions in the church hierarchy, such as Provincial Secretary, archdeacons, provosts (in-charge of cathedrals), while some have been honoured as Canons. In these ways, ACK shows resistance to its predecessors in the history of the Christian tradition with regard to the status of women in the church. Nevertheless, ACK leadership needs to draw up a firm policy to ensure eradication of gender disparity in synod meetings, at the diocesan level as well as the provincial level. Perhaps such a policy would help deconstruct the patriarchal ideology of male headship.
Without such deconstruction women will continue to be subordinated by the structures of church and society. It is one of the most crucial tools in the necessary re-imaging of the distorted perception of imago-Dei, in these structures.
In the final and concluding chapter which follows, I will examine ways in which women in some parts of Kenya are already deconstructing and responding to some of these oppressive structures.
I will also chart what work remains to be done.