Inviting Ourselves to the Table’ – the Contributions of Feminist Ecclesiology and Feminist Theology
2.3. African Feminist Ecclesiology
2.3.3. Women’s Ordination – Functions of the Church
59 The members of the women’s organisations revere the Bible as the holy ‘Word of God’.
Some of their leaders have struggled to introduce contextual reading of the Bible but for the most part, the women’s organisations are themselves still steeper in patriarchy. I thus do not believe that the women’s organisations of the MCSA grapple enough (or at all) with any of the questions related to gender injustice in the MCSA. Many of these questions, therefore, remain answered.
My own experiences and frustrations have led me out of the women’s organisations but I do believe that this space can be reclaimed to empower women in the MCSA. For a while, during and after my training for the ordained ministry, I remained a country and postal member of the Women’s Auxiliary but theologically and spiritually I do not find a home there anymore. Whilst in a Free State station, at the beginning of my training towards ordination, I occasionally attended Women’s Manyano meetings but because my spouse was the Superintendent Minister, I was treated ‘differently’ and not as one of the members. Hierarchy, status and protocol are important in the Women’s Manyano and this certainly does not fit with ‘the circle model of leadership’, which I shall propose as an alternative model of being church in chapter five.
One more of the challenges that women’s organisations face is the ordination of women. In the MCSA this became a reality in 1976 but many members of the women’s organisations do not accept women ministers. I now turn to a discussion on this topic.
60 denominations who do ordain women should work towards equal education opportunities for women and men in their churches. The stationing procedures for women in ministry might need to be reviewed until gender education has taken place in all congregations.
Justice is important and giving preference to male ministers perpetuates patriarchy.
The dynamics around stationing of women in ministry is one aspect of the Church’s ministry. Other aspects of inclusive ministry include the recognition of the gifts and skills of a woman in ministry and a willingness to adapt to the different needs of a woman in the work-place – especially if she is mother of small children. Another concern is that a woman minister, especially when working in a team, will often be assigned to the ministry with the children, the young people, the sick and the elderly. These ministries are vital and I do not wish to take anything away from them. However, assuming that a woman minister should be limited to any aspect of ministry, often without consultation or assessment of her gifts, talents, passion and training, is simply unjust. This would seldom happen when the minister, even in a team, is a man. Oduyoye (2009:33) holds out the hope that with
… our continued study and advocacy, attitudes will change and the ‘feel as if’
will be transformed into the ‘know that’ women have a duty to undertake whatever task in church or society that God calls them to.
This thesis forms part of ‘our continued study and advocacy’ and adds to the academic scholarship on gender and religion. It is true that ‘women in the ordained ministry’ is not the only exclusive structure in the Church but it does impact on almost every other part of being church today, especially in the denominations in Africa that have not yet opened their doors to women’s ordination. It is clear that patriarchy, as a system, continues to govern many churches’ ecclesiological practices – including those of the MCSA. However, the voices of African feminist theologians are being raised and their scholarship is expanding.
Another aspect of ministry that suffers because of lack of gender education is traditional practices, with regard to the Sacraments – both Holy Communion and Baptism.
This especially affects the Black African congregations in the MCSA. The function of the Church, as I understand it, is to build up the Body of Christ (which is comprised of the people) and to administer the Sacraments in order that the people will be nurtured in their faith and in their membership of the Church. Some churches still exclude women from the Sacraments during their period of menstrual flow, which deems them unclean and until
61 they have gone through a cleansing ritual, they are not welcome at the Communion Table or even at worship.47 Olajubu (2003:54), in an online article, writes that some
… churches in Yorubaland exclude women from leadership positions due to the impure label given to the menstrual blood by missionaries in the early years of Christianity among the people, the influence of which is still discernible today.
This ban on women manifests itself in transient and permanent sanctions, depending on prevailing situations. In some cases, a woman may not come to church during her menstrual period. In other situations, she is denied ordination into the priesthood because of her susceptibility to menstrual periods. Worthy of note, however, is the increasing trend of de-emphasizing this notion that menstruation signals impurity. This trend manifests at a personal level among female worshippers, who may choose to attend worship sessions during their menstrual period. This notwithstanding, one of the unspoken arguments used against the ordination of women into the priesthood derives from the impure label placed on menstrual blood. Feminist theologians and other feminist scholars have emphasized the need to reappraise this position, a reappraisal that is increasingly becoming pertinent to the empowerment of women in Yoruba Christian tradition.
This trend to recognise that their menstrual cycle is a natural part of being human is a positive one, more particularly as it comes from the Yorubaland Christian woman worshippers themselves.
Other churches, as well as some congregations in the MCSA, still insist that women cover their heads when they receive Holy Communion and some denominations, including some local churches in the MCSA, refuse to bury, marry or baptise people for a wide range of dubious ethical reasons. A single pregnant woman often has to sit at the back of the church until the leadership is satisfied that the woman has repented and decrees that she is forgiven, and single mothers’ babies are often refused baptism. Marriage is not a Sacrament in the MCSA but it is a rite, which is at times refused to someone who is not a member of the MCSA. These exclusive practices are open to debate because many argue for strict discipline and morality in the Church. However, these exclusive practices most often affect women.
Another perspective on women’s ordination, which needs to be raised in this section, is that of clericalism. Both Oduyoye (2005:146) and Radford Ruether48 have addressed the issue of women’s ordination into a patriarchal Church. Some scholars agree with the quest
47 See Women in the Yoruba Religious Sphere by Oyeronke Olajubu (South-Western Nigeria)
<http://findarticles.com> [Accessed 7 November 2011].
48 In an address to the ‘Women’s Ordination Worldwide’ (WOW) Conference in Canada in 2005.
62 for churches to open their doors to women in the ordained ministry, whereas others promote a complete change and paradigm shift for ministry as a whole – for both women and men. How do the pomp and ceremony, the separation and the exclusive practices of the ordained ministry of the past centuries, fit in with the image of Christ’s servant- leadership? This is a topic for further research as the magnitude of it lies outside the scope of this thesis. However, mention needs to be made of its importance when addressing gender inequality in the Church and the search for a more holistic ministry, which would lead to healing and transformation.
Sheena Duncan (1991:388) asks the question: “Ordination or Equality?” and adds some other important questions for women ministers to consider. Like some earlier feminist theological debates, Duncan (1991:388 and 389) also poses the question whether ordination is about “reform or reconstruction” and whether women are “victims” of oppression and exclusion or “agents” of change. The huge divide between the clergy and the laity is a growing concern and in the MCSA this has been made worse since the introduction of the term ‘Bishop’, which John Wesley purposely changed to ‘chairman’ (in those days they were all men) because of the exclusive ecclesiological practices in the Church of England in the 18th Century CE. However, the Church Unity Commission proposed to the MCSA that church unity would be enhanced if the MCSA also called their church leaders ‘Bishop’. In as much as this might be true, this ecclesial term lent weight to the position and, in my opinion, Bishops now seem to usurp more power.
Being committed to changing the Church from within is a challenge. When women challenge the status quo Duncan asks, are we challenging the men’s authority because we want that authority, or are we challenging the system in order that we might give the authority back to God? Duncan reminds us that the Church agreed that Apartheid had to be abandoned – it could not be reformed. We need to find alternatives that state clearly that sexism in the Church needs to be abandoned – it also cannot be reformed. This is infinitely more difficult as there exists no common ‘sexist’ enemy like the ‘racist’ Apartheid regime against which to work. Gender justice is written into the South African Constitution and the MCSA has a balanced gender policy. It calls for a complete paradigm shift – in people’s mindsets – and a complete change of people’s behaviour.
63 The question about being agents or victims is a delicate one. Women, especially some members within the women’s organisations, are very comfortable within their gilded cages. As Duncan (1991:389) mentions: “Being a victim can be quite a comfortable state of affairs”. She suggests that victims can lay blame elsewhere and complain about the lack of compassion extended to them. In the conclusion to her article, she calls all of us who care about the Church – women, men and children – to hang onto the dream of what we believe we, as church, can be. Finding alternative models of being church and working towards realising them are some goals for women in ministry, while at the same time, refusing to be victims of gender inequality.
The story of Victory Nomvete Mbanjwa is an example of an African woman who refused to be a victim of gender injustice. Even her English name is prophetic regarding the outcome of her call to the ordained ministry. Phiri (2002:119) writes about what happened to Mbanjwa in Her Stories – Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa, relating how she was finally ordained at the age of seventy-three after receiving her call at twenty-seven. This woman’s story makes for sad and frustrating reading. Yet, we hear Mbanjwa’s words through Phiri’s (2002:119) writing: “The point I was trying to make was the desire of being accepted. I will not be accepted if I don’t do the things that the people I am staying with are doing. … I do not want to talk about sexism in the church. Men were men and women were women.” After deep disappointments and declining several of her applications, the United Congregational Church eventually ordained the patient and longsuffering Reverend Victory Nomvete Mbanjwa to Word and Sacrament in 2000. Her perseverance and tenacity during difficult years serve, on the one hand, as a splendid example for women in ministry to continue on the journey towards full inclusion. On the other hand, her experience bears witness to the marginalisation of women and the rampant sexism in the Church.
The next feature of African feminist ecclesiology, discussed here, is the plight of minister’s wives, which is closely linked to women in ministry.