We will pour our ointment on the feet
of the church
The Ecumenical Movement and the
Ordination of Women
Aruna Gnanadason
In this paper I focus on the ecumenical discussion on this issue, from
the perspective of women of World Council of Churches’ membership who
have been wrestling with the issue in their own churches. As I
read books, articles and personal testimonies to prepare for this
paper, I was amazed how many times women spoke of their pain but also
of their joy as they encouraged their churches to recognise the
spiritual and pastoral gifts they have to offer.
But first an anecdote: I.R.H. Gnanadason my father-in-law was a
Bishop of the Church of South India and Moderator of the Church, when
he died in 1973. He has been widely acknowledged as one of the
greatest Bishops the Church has had in its almost 55 year history as a
United Church. He died before my son was born but it was his
memory that my son honoured when he was just 5 years old as I was
trying to get him ready for school. He said, “I don’t need to go
to school, or to study because when I grow up I am going to become a
Bishop like thatha (grandfather), and for this school is not
necessary. To be a Bishop, all I need to know is about God.
And I already know about God.”
The more I thought about what he said, the more it made sense.
Ordained ministry is about a calling, it is about the courage to “give
oneself to the Church in utter devotion” – it is indeed about “knowing”
God. Therefore it follows that anyone – woman or man - who feels
called to this ministry and comes to that conviction with humility and
utter devotion to God, to the vocation of priesthood and to the
community, deserves to have that call tested and be ordained as a
priest of the church. Such a call needs to be tested against the
communities needs, it is not simply an individual’s personal desire –
it requires the embracing support of a community, which discerns the
Spirit leading them.
Making a difference
My church has ordained women as priests for the past 25 years, and one
of the “stories” of ordained women is that of Nirmala Vasanthakumar,
one of the first two women ordained by the Church of South India.
She along with her husband shared ministry in a congregation. She
speaks of an incident when a woman who brought her child for baptism
asked that she be baptised by Nirmala rather than her husband, because
as a woman she would understand better what it means to birth and
nurture a child.
A year after the first women were ordained by the Church of England in
1994, a magazine commented: “Approximately a year ago, 38 women
were ordained in the Church of England. In 1995, the total is
more than 1400, constituting one-tenth of clergy in that church.
The Anglicans have observed an increase in religious practice in
parishes where a woman priest officiates…..the number of parishioners
increased by between 10 to 30 percent following the calling of a woman
to serve as parish priest.”1
In other words, women as priests can make a difference. It is
true that for some churches the problem is theological – but other
churches are re-examining the heart of their faith and have found
theological and spiritual resources and insights, which have led them
to ordain women. At the same time, I would state clearly, right
away, that in this process we as women need to contribute to a
redefining, refining and reconstructing of what priesthood is all
about. We need to constantly challenge those who would still hold
on to an understanding of the clergy “as an authoritarian sacerdotal
caste with only formal ties to a community.”2
We live in a world of exclusion and violence; a world with untold forms
of discrimination that threaten the integrity of communities; a world
that constantly poses difficult moral and ethical choices to men and
women; a world where secular forces are strong and spirituality is
undermined; a world where religious fundamentalism runs rife and
religion is used to legitimise communal identities leading to
conflicts. Additionally, in the life of the church itself,
increasingly there is evidence of gender based discrimination and even
of sexual abuse of women in pastoral contexts and more recently of the
new steps the church has been called to take in the face of increasing
evidence of paedophilia. In such a context, what should ordained
ministry be about? The Church is called to respond with
compassion and pastoral fortitude. At the heart of the commitment
to the ordination of women and men must be the concern for the
community in which the church is present to serve. Therefore, women in
ordained ministry must be viewed within the framework of, “partnership
or community rather than in isolation, because of the desperate needs
of the people and the earth. Everywhere one turns there is
reconciliation to be made, bodily and emotional wounds to be healed,
relationships to be righted, wrongs to be amended and simple
acknowledgement to be made.”3 Ordained ministry
of women can be a “way to subvert the church into being the church”,4
as Letty Russell describes it. She says this in the context of
her own experience as an ordained woman for 35 years as the minister of
a poor community church in East Harlem.
And as we discuss this issue, we are surrounded by a cloud of
witnesses, women saints ancient and new who have been recognised by the
church for the spiritual gifts they offer to the church – a
“priesthood” of love, care and compassion that they have through the
centuries offered to the church and human communities they
served. They stand as our spiritual guides as we discuss this
question. While the tradition of sainthood has been on the edges
of the Protestant traditions and has accompanied us in our liturgical
life, it is the Orthodox Tradition that has offered this gift to the
ecumenical movement. As we know, among the saints are a number of
women saints, often, ordinary women who worked uncompromisingly and
sacrificially for Christ and their communities. Ion Bria,
Romanian Orthodox theologian describes the ministry of the saints to
the Church in this way: “The faithful are called saints because
of their participation in the holiness of God, who is holy by nature
(Isa. 6:3), in Christ (Phil.4: 21). They are “God’s chosen ones,
holy (or saints)” (Col. 3:12). One aspect of the mystery of
the church is this new consecration in Christ of a “kingdom of
priests”, “consecrated nation”, “royal priesthood” (Ex.19: 6; Isa. 43:
20-21; I Pet. 2: 9) which is not exclusive or restricted.5
This among other things is the tradition that has inspired women in the
Orthodox Church to begin discussions on the ordination of women to the
priesthood in their churches, which I refer to later in this paper.
On April 1 this year, I was privileged to witness the consecration of
the third woman Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Germany,6 Bishop
Barbel Wartenberg Potter who had designed most of the liturgy for the
ceremony herself. The most moving part of the afternoon was the
time for the laying on of hands. Among those who laid their hands
on her to bless her, Bishop Maria Jepsen and Bishop Margot Kaessmann,
the other two women bishops in Germany, along with male bishops from
German churches and bishops from Africa, Papua New Guinea, Latvia,
India and the United Kingdom. But there was also Marie Dilger a
housewife and friend of Bishop Wartenberg Potter. All of them
invoked the Holy Spirit to lead her on in her ministry. The new Bishop
was not only received into the Lutheran Church of Holstein-Lübeck,
but she was received into the community of the church, a global
community, a community that goes beyond ecclesial boundaries. She
starts her ministry with manifold blessings – the blessings of God, the
blessings of the community and the blessings of women. The words
and a garland of flowers offered by the women of the Diocese symbolised
this last. This ceremony came after her formal election and
approval of her election by the women and men of that diocese.
Her community or “her congregation” were in prayer with her, as she
acknowledged her servant-hood to them.
Call/vocation
Most women who are ordained and those who are in dialogue with their
churches on the issue of the ordination of women would speak of how
they have been called to this vocation. Some women are concerned that
the church abuses the concept of the call as a way of “keeping women in
their place” – ecclesial authorities tell women that they are called to
diaconal or other ministries and not to priesthood. Nancy Duff
writes that, “The doctrine of vocation affirms that every individual
life with its unique combination of gifts and limitations has divinely
appointed purpose and that we are called to glorify God in all we
do.”7 She continues later in the same text, “Although the
doctrine of vocation can be misused to counsel tolerance for oppressive
situations, if rightly interpreted it challenges oppressive
conditions.”8 With women there is a difference in their
understanding of the calling. In India for instance, many women enter
theological schools, as a first choice, fully aware that they have no
guarantee of ordination, or even of a job, and even if their churches
will ordain them, they have no assurance that local congregations will
accept them as priests. They enter anyway, with the conviction
that it is their vocation, a call they cannot ignore.
In a collection of personal testimonies, on Women in the Ministry,9
every woman who has contributed refers to her ordination as a response
to her vocation. Some of these voices: Alison Fuller of the
Scottish Episcopal Church speaks of the denial of her vocation by the
Church as the denial of women’s humanity before God; Elizabeth Wardlaw
of the Church of Scotland compares her vocation, her calling to that of
Paul on the road to Damascus; Margaret Forrester ordained by the United
Reformed Church speaks of being aware “of an overpowering sense of
vocation which every church in which I worshipped had refused to
recognise. The frustration and pain of this were hard to bear.”
Jean Mayland of the Church of England writes: “I had come to believe
that I had a vocation to the priesthood when I was in my teens, but of
course I was told this was completely impossible. I was brought
up in a high Anglo Catholic church where my faith was nurtured and my
vocation spurned”. 10
Taking the risk…..responding to the call
“The Church will never believe that women have a religious message
until some of them get and take the opportunity to prove they have.”11
Maude Royden
Let us follow just one of the women quoted earlier. Jean Mayland,
one of the first women ordained by the Church of England, shares her
struggles and joys in the process leading to her ordination and what
followed.12 In 1907, the Anglican Church ordained the
first woman, Li Tim Oi a Chinese woman, in Xingxing, in China.
From there it has slowly but surely spread – to Hong Kong, USA, Canada,
New Zealand, Latin America, Kenya and other African countries, the
united Church of South India and Ireland. In 1862, the Order of
the Deaconesses was revived in the Anglican Church and Elizabeth Ferrar
was ordained as the first deaconess.
Jean Mayland describes how she pursued her vocation: “During my
theology year I went for a selection conference and was accepted to
train as a ‘Lady Worker’ in the Church of England. On reflection
I felt I could not face all the limitations and frustrations that would
be involved in that work. I felt called to priesthood and not to
‘lady worker ship’. I do so admire those women who moved in and
worked as ‘lady/women workers’, and later as deaconesses. With
courage and patience they pushed back the boundaries. I could not
have done it. I would either have exploded or have been destroyed
and embittered by frustration.”13
And so she got into the fray and with other women accompanied her
church on the way to the final decision to ordain women. She speaks of
how she, “along with my sister priests, have had to campaign and also
fight with our church long and hard. Yet I love the Church of
England with every fibre of my being…..”14. In 1992, she was one
of the few privileged women, (having won in the ballot for tickets) to
be able to sit in the gallery of the Church House and witness the
debate and final approval of ordination of women to priesthood.
She reminiscences, “I managed to overcome my urge to burst into
tears, and expressed my joy and delight that after all these years this
had happened….The words that came to my mind were those of Siegfried
Sassoon’s poem about Armistice Day, which concludes ‘and the singing
will never be done.’”15
But, there was not much space for singing after that - things did not
go with the smoothness women hoped for. The press, who wanted to
sensationalise the news about the ordination, especially because there
was enough awareness of the opposition to it, constantly misquoted
her. Some of the Bishops and senior staff seemed to be more
concerned about keeping in the church those who opposed the ordination,
than to celebrate with the women their success. Even deans and
canons showed their hostility. Family obligations did not make
life easier. She was not able to take up full time
ministry. While the earlier quotation from a magazine indicates
that the ordained women in the Anglican Church of England did bring
change in some congregations, it is also true that a few years after
the decision to ordain women, many did not get parish ministries, they
had to go into specialised areas of work of the church or accept
Assistant posts.
But Jean Mayland was one of the 38 women to be ordained in that first
batch. She writes: “I am eternally grateful to God, with whom I
often wrestle, that along the mysterious path of life where the going
is often so dark, She has brought me on occasions to sit in places of
stimulation, or of tranquillity and joy”16 She speaks of the deep
emotions she experienced the first time she celebrated the Eucharist,
“When I began the Eucharistic Prayer I felt I would not be able to get
through it without collapsing into tears….Never will leading the people
in making Eucharist lose its humbling thrill, but never again will it
be such an awe-inspiring privilege as that first time.”17
I have traced the struggles and joys of one woman in one member church
of the WCC who has gone through such a history because it these women
we have at the centre of our thoughts, when we speak of the ordination
of women. One meets women like Jean Mayland in every part of the world
- women who so love the church that they are willing to put their lives
and those of their families on the line, for the sake of what they
believe in intensely. Women who follow for whom ordination is now a
given, will never be able to fathom what price their “fore-sisters and
mothers” have paid. The Team Visits to the member churches of the
World Council of Churches at the mid-point of the Ecumenical Decade of
the Churches in Solidarity with Women, met with women in many churches
where this is an issue. The report of the team visits, the Living
Letters records that: “There are churches in all regions which forbid
the ordination of women, even where they can cite no doctrinal or
theological reasons why this should be so. While some churches
recognise women’s gifts, many are quite slow and even resistant to
recognise and support women in ministry. Even where women have –
after much struggle – been trained and ordained, fair pay, stable
placements and moral support as they exercise their ministry are not
guaranteed to them. After graduation many women ministers must
wait a long time to receive a posting. They may be forced to
chose between vocation and family.”18
The challenge to the ecumenical movement…..
The women I speak of here are all from the World Council of Churches’
membership churches and from the constituency the World Council of
Churches (WCC) serves. At the Decade Festival (Harare, Zimbabwe,
November 1998) that brought to conclusion the Decade a letter was
addressed to WCC Assembly. In what I consider, was a regrettable
mistake the issue of the ordination of women is referred to as “an
ethical and theological problem” for the church19. The drafters
of the text left it this way to respect women from churches where
ordination of women is not yet an issue. Strong requests from
ordained women present that this formulation be changed, and a new
paragraph be drafted devoted to just the question of ordination, to
highlight both their joys and difficulties, was ignored. The
process did not allow for their voices to be heard and this left many
women who had been involved in long years of struggle for ordination to
the priesthood, disillusioned and unsatisfied. This has convinced
the WCC of the need for further discussion on the ordination of women
was evident and discussions have begun within the Faith and Order
Commission (of which the Roman Catholic Church is an official member)
to re-engage the member churches on this issue.
The question of ordination of women and the unity of the Church
“Openness to each other holds the possibility that the Spirit may well
speak to one church through the insights of another” (Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry text)20
That the issue of the ordination of women has been one of the most
divisive of issues for the churches has to be acknowledged. Mary
Tanner, former Moderator of the Faith and Order Commission of the World
Council of Churches, describes the dilemma clearly when she writes that
among the churches that grew out of the Reformation, the movement to
ordain women to full ministry of word and sacrament, “coincided with
the movement towards the visible unity of the church. The one has
had an effect on the other. This result is not surprising, for
the visible unity of the church involves the recognition not only of
all its baptized members as members of a single community of faith but
also of those who are called to be ministers of one communion.”21
She quotes Anglican Archbishop William Temple who expressed the view,
as early as 1916, which she says has been shared by many other
committed ecumenists, “I would like to see women ordained….desirable as
it would be in itself, the effect might be (probably would be) to put
back the re-union of Christendom – and reunion is more important.”22
While the question of the ordination of women is certainly not easy
given the diversity of positions among the various church traditions
that are part of the ecumenical movement, whether the question of the
ordination of women can be held responsible for the slow and arduous
process to visible unity is a matter of debate. But there
are several instances where the issue did affect unity
discussions: the Anglicans did not join in the United Church of
Canada in 1956 because that church ordained women. In the
Anglican-Methodist unity scheme in England in the 1960’s the Methodists
delayed the ordination of women till it was obvious that the unity
scheme had failed. Even in the covenanting process that followed
involving the United Reformed Church, the Methodists, the Moravian and
the Anglican churches, the ordination of women once again was an
issue. The Church of England included a separate motion referring
to the recognition of women ministers of other churches – this was
defeated in the House of Clergy. At the Consultation of united
and uniting churches in 1987, the situation was summed up this
way: “For some churches the ordination of women adds to the
hindrances to unity; but the united churches are clear that further
union for them is being made a more open possibility by the willingness
of those to share the ordination of women which they have found to be a
creative element in their common life.” 23
According to Mary Tanner: “The contribution of the WCC has been
to help the churches to set the discussion within the context of an
emerging convergence on the understanding of ministry and priesthood
and, perhaps even more important, within the concept of the unity we
seek. The studies on the unity of the church and the renewal of
human community have enlarged and enriched the perspective of this
unity. Some have come to maintain that the churches’ ministry
must include women in order to show to the world the depths of unity in
human community and make the gospel and the vision of the kingdom
credible in a broken and divided world. The unity of the church
ought not to be set over against the unity of the human community.”24
Melanie May had posed a similar question when she asked, “At the end,
each and everyone of us will need to search our hearts before God to
discern whether we believe with Archbishop William Temple that visible
church unity is “more important” than the ordination of women or
whether visible church unity is at all achievable unless all baptized
members – men and women alike in God’s image – can fulfil the ministry
to which God has called them in Christ.”25
Preceding the formation of the World Council of Churches, at the very
first World Conference on Faith and Order in 1927 in Lausanne, of the
400 church delegates only 7 were women and yet they issued a prophetic
motion which was accepted by that body. It is recorded in the
Minutes: “the right place of women in the Church is one of grave moment
and should be in the hearts and minds of all.” Commenting on this
Lukas Vischer writes, “They pointed out that if the Church seeks deeper
unity it must re-examine the question of the relationship between women
and men, and that the mission task makes it imperative to put to better
use all the gifts available in the Church. They deliberately
refrained from raising the problem of church order in this
connection. But already at that time it was clear that it would
not be possible to avoid facing the question later.”26
The Third Assembly of the WCC in New Delhi, in 1961, called on the
Working Committee on Faith and Order “to establish a study on the
theological, biblical and ecclesiological issues involved in the
ordination of women”. It was also stressed that the study be undertaken
in close conjunction with the Department on Cooperation of Men and
Women in Church, Family and Society. The Working Committee
of the Faith and Order approved the proposal and decided to place the
question of ordination of women on the agenda of the Fourth World
Conference on Faith and Order to be held in Montreal, Canada in July
1963.
“This decision was felt as necessary because the problem is of
practical concern to an increasing number of churches. Many
churches welcome women to the ordained ministry and have found the
policy advantageous. Others, having adopted this policy, face
serious tensions. In others, the policy is under discussion and
provokes heated debate. The matter frequently becomes acute in
negotiations for church unity. And even apart from formal
negotiations, it affects the mutual relations of churches that ordain
women to those that do not. It would be wrong, therefore, to view
this issue as a result of feminist demands or agitation by a few
enthusiasts. It concerns the total understanding of the ministry
of the church and therefore has deep theological significance.”27
This position spoken of nearly 40 years ago remains true till today,
though in this period many churches have decided to and have ordained
women to priesthood. It continues to be regrettable that some
churches even today, view this deep longing of women to respond to
their vocation as a campaign of a few feminists making unreasonable
demands!
Two other important contributions to the discussion
In the work of the Faith and Order Commission, there were two other
important study processes that have contributed to the ongoing
discussions on the ordination of women. The first is the
Community of Women and Men Study process that had been initiated during
the V Assembly of the WCC in Nairobi in 1975 and which culminated in
1981 at an international consultation in Sheffield. This process
was based on a recognition that “the unity of the church requires that
women be free to live out the gifts that God has given them and to
respond to their calling to share fully in the life and witness of the
church.”28 The process was to be an ecclesiological study,
focused on the recognition that ‘women’s issues’ are issues concerning
the wholeness of the whole church, a study of church unity with
particular regards to the experience of women. As a result,
“Significant ecclesiological challenges emerging from the study
included questions about the structures of the church, about how power
and authority were exercised and by whom. The question of power
and exclusive leadership inevitably brought up the controversial
questions of the ordination of women to the priesthood and the
episcopate. Although there was no agreement on the answers to these
questions, at Sheffield they were clearly, and often painfully,
articulated.”29
At Sheffield the discussion recognised “the complexity and diversity of
the existing situations both within and between the different
churches. The state of the discussion is also at different stages
in different cultures. Amongst the churches there is a plurality
of practice embracing those who do ordain women, those who do not, and
those who are hesitant for ecumenical reasons”30 The report goes on to
say that as knowledge of theology and sociology develop, “we are
offered a chance to deepen our understanding and practice of ministry
and our relations with one another…The issues involved in this matter
touch us at our deepest level, embedded as they are in liturgy,
symbolism and spirituality. There can be no real progress if
church, state or any group within the church seeks to force a change in
practice without taking this into account.”31 Sheffield
also pointed to the fact that the problems of the ministry are related
“to the social and cultural context where the identity of the church
and individual Christians is being constantly challenged.”32
It is important to comment here that at that time it was assumed that
the ordination of women was an issue of concern only for women from
western protestant churches. But women from all parts of the
world have described their own struggles with their churches.
They have challenged their churches for reverting to cultural contexts
in their societies as the base for excluding women. Musimbi
Kanyoro gathers together some of these voices from Asia, Africa and
Latin America in the book entitled In Search of a Round Table.
She writes about African women: “….the powers of healing, preaching and
spiritual direction, typically understood by the Christian Church to be
priestly duties, are powers traditionally exercised by women and men in
African societies. If there is to be any general picture of
African women in ordained ministries, an inclusive study of the
religious roles played by women in different types of societies in
Africa is imperative.”33 Datuk Thu En-Yu from Malaysia makes a
similar claim about women’s roles in societies, which follow the path
of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.34
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry Document….. another opportunity?
The second important stream in the WCC was the study, which culminated
in Lima, Peru in January 1982, where the Faith and Order Commission
gave final form to a convergence text entitled Baptism. Eucharist and
Ministry (BEM) for discussion in the churches. It marked points
of “theological convergence among the churches on issues which
traditionally caused division among the churches.”35 It was at
this same meeting that the final report of the Community Study was also
received. However, the BEM document does not treat the ordination
of women to priesthood in the main part of the ministry text but
considers the issue in a commentary that gives a short description of
the positions of churches that ordain women and those that do not.36
Janet Crawford feels that the BEM text was not entirely uninfluenced by
the Community Study. She writes: “In both the baptism and
eucharist sections of the text there are ‘theological insights about
unity, equality and the imaging of Christ in us all’ which, at least
implicitly, makes connections to the community study and which may
signal to women that they are ‘partners in the search for the visible
unity of the church.’ “It is in the section on ministry that the lack
of connection between BEM and the Community Study becomes most
obvious. The whole controversial issue of the ordination of women
is dealt with in two carefully formulated and balanced paragraphs which
conclude that: ‘An increasing number of churches have decided
that there is no biblical or theological reason against ordaining
women, and many of them have subsequently proceeded to do so. Yet
many churches hold that the tradition of the church in this regard must
not be changed.’(BEM, “Ministry” para 18)”37
Commenting on the BEM text, Crawford quotes Cardman: “…in the
much-praised Lima text itself, little attention has been paid to what
was described as ‘the most obvious point of present and potential
disagreement, namely, the ordination of women’. (Cardman, BEM and the
Community of Women and Men Study, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 21
Winter 1988). Rather, on this point it seemed that Faith and Order had
retreated from its bolder statements. The result satisfied
neither opponents nor proponents of women’s ordination, and did little
to advance dialogue between the two. BEM gave no lead to the
vital and church-dividing question of women’s ordination.”38
Respecting diversity….the key to mutuality and ecumenical discipline
Women too come into this discussion from different understandings and
from varying positions. This diversity has to be respected,
because clearly the ecumenical movement among women does not intend to
call for any one uniform pattern of ordained ministry. Even in
those churches where it is still not openly discussed women are
beginning to discuss the issue. While there are many examples of World
council of Churches member churches I can reflect on, I refer here to
the contributions of Orthodox Christian women to the
discussion. Three important books that have been offered by
Orthodox women theologians are: Elisabeth Behr-Sigel’s The Ministry of
Women in the Church published first in French in 1987 (Oakwood
Publications, California); Kyriaki Karidoyanes Fitzgerald’s Women
Deacons in the Orthodox Church, Called to Holiness and Ministry
published in 1998 and revised and republished in 1999 (Holy Cross
Orthodox Press, Massachusetts); and Elisabeth Behr-Sigel and Kallistos
Ware’s The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church published in 2000
(World Council of Churches, Geneva). A series of meetings of
Orthodox women – all under the patronage of the leadership of the
Orthodox churches – starting with the first in Agapia, Romania in 1976;
Rhodes in 1988; Damascus 1996 and Istanbul, 1997 – all have addressed
this issue. Some of the participants in the meeting in Damascus
welcomed “the idea of organising an inter-Orthodox conference on the
ordination of women to the priesthood.”39. Orthodox Christian women
have participated in ecumenical women’s meetings and would naturally be
influenced by the discussions. But Behr-Sigel refers to the new
challenges within the Orthodox Churches themselves and describes one of
the signs of the times as “a call that that we should discern between
the living Tradition and a fossilized traditionalism, particularly
regarding the place of women.”40. She writes: “As responsible
theologians in the Orthodox Church – both men and women – have become
aware of these contradictions, the question of the admission of women
to a sacramental ministry has arisen. The question no longer
comes to them only from outside in the course of ecumenical dialogue,
but it has also become for them an internal problem.”41
The World Council of Churches offers an ecumenical space…
The impact of the Community of Women and Men Study and the theological
and anthropological challenges it posed; the Ecumenical Decade of the
Churches in Solidarity with Women and the unfinished ecclesiological
challenges it has left the churches with and the newly begun process
Being Church: Women’s Voices and Visions which will explore the ways in
which women vision the Church and its forms of leadership and
ministries - all will leave an indelible mark on the churches and their
search for visible unity. All these processes will
contribute to the proposed Faith and Order, consultation on “Ministry
and Ordination in the Community of Women and Men” to be held in 2002,
which will certainly contribute to this discussion. The
decision to hold such a conference was taken by the Faith and Order
Board at its meeting held in Toronto, Canada in June 1999.
Introducing the debate Melanie May, spoke of how the “Discussion on the
Ordination of women is threaded through the ecumenical movement in the
20th century. This thread of discussion is, however, a slender
one and has, at times, been all but unravelled by silence on the
subject. Today we seek to weave this thread more integrally into
the search for visible unity of the Church, acknowledging that the
visible unity of the Church is predicated on the recognition of all
baptised members and the recognition of all those called to ordained
ministries. We cannot, therefore, achieve the visible unity of
the Church, unless we are willing to walk together, in truth and love,
about the question of women’s ministries, including the ordination of
women.”42
Are we willing to walk together in truth and love in our search for
unity? This is the question that accompanies the WCC and its
designing of the concept of an “ecumenical space” to provide a safe
environment for difficult and church dividing issues, such as the
ordination of women, to be discussed.
Konrad Raiser, General Secretary in his report to the VIII Assembly of
the WCC in Harare, 1998 said, “In the uncertainty of the present
situation, with its temptation to see identity in a defensive and
exclusive way, the ecumenical movement needs to recapture the sense of
the pilgrim people of God, of churches on the way together, ready to
transcend the boundaries of their history and tradition, listening
together to the voice of the Shepherd, recognising and resonating with
each other as those energised by the same Spirit. The World
Council of Churches, as a fellowship of churches, marks the space where
such risky encounter can take place, where confidence and trust can be
built and community can grow. At present, this conviction is
being tested severely by conflicts over moral issues, especially
regarding human sexuality, and by the ecclesiological and theological
challenges arising from the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in
Solidarity with Women. More than ever before we need the WCC as
an ecumenical space which is open and yet embraced by the faithfulness
of God and protected by the bond of peace, a space of mutual acceptance
and understanding as well as of mutual challenge and correction.”43
In the discussion on the ordination of women within this ecumenical
space, the most important criteria will be to discern the diversity of
voices and opinions on the issue and to enter the discussion with
sensitivity and respect for different ecclesiologies. It requires
all parties to listen attentively to each other – to listen to the
struggles over vocation. It is critical that in unity talks where
“churches which take a more traditional view are contemplating union
with churches which believe that in ordaining women they are led by the
Spirit”, that the churches participating “seriously face the
theological issues involved”, and in this “it is much to be hoped that
whatever decision an individual church reaches there will be no
accusation of heresy but that its decision will be accepted by others
as a genuine effort to follow the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.”44 Additionally, we cannot undertake our discussion
of the ordination of women or the ordination of men without serious and
sustained discussion of the ministry of all baptised members and the
fact that some – women and men - are “set apart” or called to ordained
priesthood. There has also to be further reflection on Christian
anthropology and what it means when we affirm that male and female are
created in the image of God. Perhaps most importantly of all it
requires an openness to the working of the Holy Spirit, in a
reaffirmation of the doctrines, with the possibility of the development
of the doctrines of the church in keeping with the times.
I believe it is appropriate to conclude with the words of Bishop
Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia, who addresses the Orthodox
churches, with words that are appropriate for all churches – those that
ordain women and those, which do not. He writes: “In discussing
the ministry of women in the Church, let us not be afraid (as Orthodox)
to acknowledge that there is a mystery here which we have scarcely
started to explore. In speaking of a ‘mystery’, I am using the
word in its proper theological sense. A mystery is not just an
enigma or an unsolved puzzle. It is a truth or a set of truths
revealed by God to our created intelligence, yet never exhaustively
revealed because it reaches into the depths of divine infinity.
The primal mystery is always the incarnation of Christ (see Ephesians
1:9; Colossians 1:26-27), in which all other mysteries - including the
mysteria or sacraments of the Church, such as baptism, eucharist and
priesthood – find their origin and their fulfilment.”45
We will continue supporting each other in our yearning to be faithful
to God’s call to ordained priesthood. We will also continue our
exploration into what being church means for the world today as we
strive for new models of leadership – ready, responsive and courageous;
caring, loving and compassionate; inclusive, hospitable and
embracing….so that the Church will be each and every day truly the
Church of Jesus Christ. And I say again, we as women, as the
Spirit leads us, will pour our ointment on the feet of the church.
Aruna Gnanadason
World Council of Churches
Geneva, Switzerland