The role of women in
religious leadership: it's a highly charged topic that has been debated and
discussed for centuries. Even today, after the significant progress women have
made in business and government, there are many perfectly intelligent people,
both male and female, who insist that women do not belong in positions of
church leadership.
Who can forget the
Alaskan woman who recently stated that Governor Sarah Palin could serve as vice
president of the United States but could not serve as a pastor in her own
church?
Let's review a few of
America's major religions and see what history reveals about the prospects of
women attaining leadership positions.
The teaching of the Catholic
Church has been very clear.
During the 26-year pontificate of Pope John Paul II women were appointed
chancellors of dioceses around the world, they assumed pastoral and
administrative duties in priestless parishes, and they began populating the
ranks of "experts" at Vatican symposiums and synods. In 2004, for the
first time, the pope named a Harvard University law professor, Mary Ann
Glendon, to be president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and he
appointed two women theologians to the prestigious International Theological
Commission.
Nevertheless, while
decrying discrimination against women and supporting their promotion in many
areas of community and social life, the pope unequivocally upheld the
traditional teaching that the Catholic Church cannot ordain women to the priesthood.
The most direct statement of the pope's position can be found in his 1994
apostolic letter, "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone":
"Wherefore, in
order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a
matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of
my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church
has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that
this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."
Have you ever heard
of Regina Jonas? Probably
not. But Regina Jonas was a heroic trailblazer. Born in Berlin in 1902, Jonas
enrolled at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) and
graduated as an "Academic Teacher of Religion." Jonas wrote as her
thesis "Can a Woman Be a Rabbi According to Halachic Sources?" Her
conclusion, based on Biblical, Talmudic, and rabbinical sources, asserted that
women could be ordained. On December 27, 1935 Regina Jonas received her Semicha
and was ordained by the liberal
Rabbi Max Dienemann, who was the head of the Liberal Rabbis' Association, in
Offenbach, Hesse. Jonas found work as a chaplain in various Jewish social
institutions. Tragically, in 1942 she was arrested by the Gestapo and two years later sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered at the age of 42.
The first American
female rabbi was Sally Jane Priesand (born June 27, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio). Rabbi Priesand was
ordained in June, 1972 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in
Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the spiritual leader of Monmouth Reform Temple in
Tinton Falls, NJ until her retirement in June, 2006. Rabbi Priesand told the New
York Times, "On the whole,
I'm a very private person. I became a rabbi not to champion women's rights. I
didn't think about being a pioneer or any of those things."
By 2006, among the
three Jewish denominations -- Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative --
that accept women into the rabbinate, 829 women had become rabbis. Across all
three movements women are routinely ordained, a trend that is likely to further
revolutionize the pulpit.
The Episcopal Church
in the United States today has a female leader. On Saturday, November 4, 2006 Katharine
Jefferts Schori was ordained as
the Presiding Bishop of Episcopal Church in the United States of America. She
is the first woman elected primate in the Anglican Communion. Although Jefferts
Schori's election indicated widespread support in the Episcopal Church in the
United States for ordaining women, there was opposition. The Diocese of Fort
Worth, which opposes women in holy orders, asked the Archbishop of Canterbury
for "alternative primatial oversight." Several other conservative dioceses
affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network, including some that ordain
women, have made similar requests.
Over 33 million
Americans identify themselves as Baptists. Constituting nearly one-third of all
U.S. Baptists, Southern Baptists represent about seven percent of all U.S.
Christians. In regard to women as pastors, the position of the Southern
Baptist Convention is absolutely
clear. Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in 2000, states: "While both men
and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited
to men as qualified by Scripture."
Are women entitled to
serve as religious leaders? It seems as though the answer depends upon whom you
ask.
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