Silver Jubilee of Women’s Ordination in Indian Churches
Ordination of Women in the Methodist Church of India


Augusta Paul, Bangalore.


Introduction

Ordination to pastoral ministry is associated with multiple responsibilities including pulpit ministry, church  governance, administration, a high level of leadership and authority. Pulpit ministry involves regular preaching and teaching of God’s Word and admonishing. It involves conducting sacraments like baptism and Holy Communion and ceremonies like marriages and funerals. The nature of this ministry, some passages in the Bible like I Timothy 2:11-15, and overall cultural trends are considered to be the basis for the exclusion of women from the ordination to the pastoral ministry in some churches. Although there are some examples of women prophetesses (Huldah and Philip’s four daughters), deaconesses (Phoebe), and apostles (Junias?) in the Bible, these roles were largely performed by men. Women exercised leadership in the various ministries of the church and society, yet the positions of leadership were largely gender-based rather than on a person’s gifts and calling.


Women and Ministry in the Church

In more recent times, women are found to be involved in the church as Bible women, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School teachers, women’s fellowships, missions to women, missionaries, missionary wives, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers in mission hospitals, community health programmes, school teachers, principals and managers of Christian schools, hostel wardens for children, girls and women, secretaries, prayer group and Bible study group leaders and similar ministries. But fewer women are found as ordained pastors and actually pastoring churches.


Methodist Church in India

Ordination of Women

The MCI was associated with the United Methodist Church of USA and later to the Methodist Church in Southern Asia till 1981. Women’s ordination to the pastoral ministry was accepted in UMC, thus in MCI as well.

Since 1981, MCI has ordained about half a dozen women for the pastoral ministry: Late Rev. Mrs. Thomas, Rev. Dr. Navamani Peter, Rev. Mrs. Bhagwandas, Rev. Mrs. Ahale, Rev. Mrs. Rita Jackson, and Rev. Mrs. Smita Roziya. At present three of them are pastoring churches: Rev. Mrs. Bhagwandas, Rev. Mrs. Ahale, and Rev. Mrs. Smita Roziya.



A Case Study

Rev. Mrs. Smita Roziya graduated with BD from UBS, Pune, in 1981. She worked as an associate district evangelist with a missionary lady named Mrs. Faith Bauman for 3 years in Gujarat Regional Conference. Smita was ordained as a deacon in 1984. She was given a small congregation at Hathijan in a suburb of Ahmedabad. Two years later, in 1986, she was ordained as an elder. Since then she is pastoring the Carmel Methodist Church in Ahmedabad. She is greatly loved, respected and accepted by her congregation. She receives tremendous support from them.

Smita is married to Mr. Enon Roziya who is also a theological graduate. He worked in the Gujarat Auxiliary of Bible Society in Ahmedabad for several years. Since last 3 years he is involved in translation work. They have 2 daughters – Sandy, 15 years, and Janice, 9 years. As husband and wife, they have proved to be an ideal team. Their elder daughter, Sandy, is a special challenged child and needs much help and attention from both the parents. Both Smita and Enon participate equally in child care, domestic responsibilities, as well as ministerial roles.


Deaconesses’ Ministry in the MCI

The Methodist Church in India has quite a strong ministry of deaconesses. There are about 100 deaconesses who are commissioned and appointed by the Bishops. Apart from the secular qualifications, these women are expected to complete one year training for deaconesses at Leonard Theological College at Jabalpur. Deaconesses minister as principals of schools and colleges, as teachers and hostel wardens, as doctors, nurses and health care workers. They are involved in various ministries to children, youth, women, and the elderly. Some of them work as secretaries and in other administrative positions including financial decision-making. It seems that most of the women who are desirous and called to join the ministry are encouraged to join the deaconesses wing of the ministry. This seems to be much more acceptable.


Lay Women in the MCI

The ministries in the MCI are classified as Ordained, Deaconesses, and Lay Ministry. Lay ministry includes both men and women. On the whole, Methodist Church seems to be quite open to involve women in the church governance. Apart from Christian education and WSCS, women are nominated as members of the Pastorate Conferences, Pastorate Committees, Regional Conferences, various councils, and other decision-making bodies with a right to vote. Women are encouraged to take up theological education. Some of them teach in the Bible colleges. In local churches, women may fulfil responsibilities as ushers, worship leaders, choir members, Sunday School teachers, youth advisors, and several other serving roles. Openings are there but few are occupied by women. The participation of women in the church’s public or frontline ministries is yet to grow in greater proportion.





Our Calling as a Church

As a church we are the body of Christ. We are people transformed by the cross of Christ. Our highest calling is to be true to the Word of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Women are created in the image of God as much as men are. Women share the same purpose of God in the creation, fall, redemption, consummation, and in the ministry of the church. The lost dignity of women and men due to the human disobedience in the Garden of Eden is restored by the atoning death of Christ. The apostle Paul declares… “There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Thus, we have every option to use women’s gifts in the church for the edification of the whole Body of Christ. As we interpret and apply the Word of God to the changing circumstances of our day, we are called to redeem the culture, especially its subservient patterns of social relationships. The church has nothing to lose if its women are honoured according to their gifts, skills, calling and the standards declared in God’s Word. The greater participation of women in the church, including the shepherding ministry and other leadership positions, will only edify the church and better equip it to fulfil its calling in the hurting world.


The Wider Context

The ordination of women to the pastoral ministry in the church needs to be examined in the wider context of the gender relations in society. Gender is the socio-cultural interpretation of the male and female sexes. While sex is biological, gender is cultural. The phenomenon of gender-based exclusion of women is seen in most societies and the church is not an exception. Yet, we have much greater hope for the inclusion of women at every level in the church due to the Biblical teaching on the equality of women and men. As a church, are we leading in the matter of gender equality compared with the rest of the institutions of society? To some extent, the issues related to women’s ordination and their participation in the church governance is but a part of the whole cluster of views about the gender relations seen in society at large. As a church, we are to impact transformation in society. There always seems to be a stubborn resistance towards change and transformation of institutionalised patterns of behaviour. Remember the struggles of William Carey, his associates, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and the leaders of the social reformation movement in the 19th Century to bring about Sati prevention (1829)? It will take nothing less from the 21st Century church to bring about overall social transformation where women find their rightful place of honour and dignity.

Generally, value systems become a part of the society in at least two ways: by the process of institutionalisation, the clusters of values and norms become a part of the institutional structures and social systems at the macro level. On the other hand, through the process of socialisation and personality development, values and standards of behaviour become an integral part of individual persons. These are all learned ways of behaviour.


What Can We Do?

One way to inculcate the values of gender equality and dignity of women is through the Christian education programme of the church and value education in Christian and secular institutions. Practical and other ministries related to the exposition of God’s Word can reflect this teaching as well. When was the last time we heard a challenge according to God’s Word against the evils of dowry, bride-burning, wife-beating, female infanticide, female foeticide, exclusion of women from the access and control of resources and opportunities? Feminisation of poverty, the adverse effects of growing industrialisation and globalisation, the exploitation of women in the glamour industry, advertisement and media, and uneven sex ratio are some very serious issues which need to be urgently addressed by the church. Let us not leave it to the NGOs and secular media. The church needs to play an active and dynamic role here, mainly because the church alone has the transforming power of the cross and the Word of God.

The 2001 census shows a slight appreciation of the number of women to 933 per 1000 men compared with 927 in the 1991 census. But a closer scrutiny of the juvenile sex ratio in the 0-6 age group shows a dangerous decline of the number of girls from 976 in 1961 to 927 in 2001. In some districts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat, it has declined by –120 to –100 points compared to the 1991 census. In an article entitled “Who Will Lament for the Unborn Daughters”, Ashish Bose declares these states as DEMARU states, meaning “Daughters Eliminated or Killed” (TOI, 25 April 2001, P.12). BIMARU states (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, and UP) have already played havoc in the area of imbalanced sex ratio.

We as a church need to develop teaching material, songs, skits, TV and radio programmes, sermons and overall exposition of God’s Word to teach, preach and communicate as to how God cares for women and girls. The sharing of domestic work and child care responsibilities by both husbands and wives, boys and girls, needs to be taught and modelled. Girls and women need the same opportunities to develop their full potential as much as men and boys. Resources like food, nutritution and health care, education and skill training, work and leisure, need to be equally shared by girls and women in the family and society. Networking with men, women, and like-minded organisations at local, regional, national, and global levels is urgent. Transformation of gender realities needs hard work, dogged determination, and above all, God’s power.


Conclusion

The Silver Jubilee of Women’s Ordination in Indian Churches is the right time, though late, to learn and practise the Biblical equality of women and men. We are responsible to transmit it to the growing generation. I conclude this brief write-up in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Liberator of women and men and the whole of creation. He will guide and use His church to restore the lost dignity and value of womanhood for which He died on the cross.











Who Will Lament for the Unborn Daughters?



Therefore the girl child below 6 years has lost out badly.



Decline of the sex ratio of the child population is a secular trend.


There is a drastic decline in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Delhi.

The figures for the districts are even more shocking.

 
The Times of India, Page 12
                                Wednesday, 25 April 2001
                            By Ashish Bose