Book Review: The Blue Castle

I know, I know – I am incredibly late to the game in discovering this delightful story. Written by L. M. Montgomery (think Anne of Green Gables), set in the wild beauty of Canada and the odd societies people create, it’s possibly my new favourite. At the very least, I can envision it being one of stories you return to again and again.

All you need to know in terms of the ‘plot’ of this book, is that Valancy is 29, unmarried and unhappy. Events prompt her to drastically change her life, and this story is the result. Valancy grows in character and heart page by page, to the shock, amazement and slight dismay of her various family and friends.

Like with most of Montgomery’s work, there are detailed and captivating descriptions of the landscape and natural locations of the story. Even more captivating is her ability to describe people – physically and psychologically – in such a way that you immediately can picture them, mannerisms and all, in your mind.

If you haven’t read any of her work before, I’d highly recommend it. While the Anne sagas are understandably my favourites, I know they can be a bit overwhelming. Perhaps starting with The Blue Castle, this short, stand alone novel, is more manageable. If you are an Anne fan, but haven’t read any of Montgomery’s other work, I again highly recommend it. I especially enjoyed The Story Girl, but I think The Blue Castle has now overtaken it in my affections.

Do you have a favourite Montgomery book I haven’t mentioned here? Let me know. If you read The Blue Castle and enjoy, also let me know!

Women and The Reformation Part 4 – Always Reforming

This is part four in my series on the Reformation and it’s impact on women. You can read part one here, part two here and part three here.

The Counter Reformation

The Counter Reformation is the name given to the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. Even before Luther and the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church was starting to adapt and change – this was certainly made more necessary, however, with the advent of the Reformation. Recently, historians have revealed the importance of women to the Catholic revival after the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent has been called the launch point for the Counter Reformation – the Catholic Church declared a number of the Protestant beliefs as heresies, as well as revising and confirming the Catholic liturgy. It shaped and defined the future of the Catholic Church.

In this period of history, women often used their social status to negotiate their own spaces for religious expression. Where the traditional institution did not make room for them, the women forged their own groups and positions. For example, women in the Benedictine convent of Überwasser used their elite social status as ‘members of the noble class’ to challenge the reform of their convent. The nuns revealed themselves as more than silent brides of Christ. As another example, the group of pious lay women known as the Lichtmutter (light mothers) were overseers of the provision of candles in the parish church, but who came to fulfill a range of duties including the collection of alms and church maintenance.

At the close of the Council of Trent Catholic society offered two respected roles for women: wife and cloistered nun. By the end of the following century women had numerous other roles available to them, such as nurses, teachers and activists. They were integral parts of the new Counter Reformation society.

Where are we now?

The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation changed society for all people. As we have looked at, it’s easy to notice the changes it brought to the lives of women, for better and for worse. But where are we now? What difference has it made?

Most Western Protestant Churches are still dealing with the ‘women’s issues’ and struggling to find answers. This is telling; women are still seen as an issue. The leadership of women, the place for women as teachers and preachers is still contested and viewed by many (both men and women) as unbiblical.

Of course, some denominations have embraced the idea of female pastors – though sometimes for societal reasons rather than the conviction of scripture – and even in these churches, women are still facing struggles their brothers in Christ are not. Women often still feel like second class citizens in the church family.

Always reforming

I think the Reformers would be horrified if the Reformation had stopped with them. Reformation is not a one time event in history, but an ongoing attitude and process as we look at the Bible as we make decisions around how we do church and how we follow God.

The world is changing – it was changing for the Reformers, and it hasn’t stopped since. We will always be reacting to events around us as a Church, and we will always be tempted to both cling to old traditions out of fear and to leap ahead without stopping to check before we jump. Instead, we must turn again and again to God’s Word, just as the Reformers did, as we evaluate where we are heading as a Church.

References

Assess the Effects of the Reformation on the Lives of Women in Sixteenth-Century Europe: https://tudorblogger.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/assess-the-effects-of-the-reformation-on-the-lives-of-women-in-sixteenth-century-europe/

Review: Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Private and Public Worlds (Social History) by Sherrin Marshall

Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History – Diana Lynn Severance

Reform and Conflict: From the Medieval World to the Wars of Religion – Rudolph W. Heinze

The European Reformations – Carter Lindberg

The Education of Women in the Reformation (History of Education Quarterly) by Lowell Green

A Key to Counter Reformation Women’s Activism: The Confessor-Spiritual Director (Journal of Feminist Study In Religion) by Patricia Ranft

The Protestant Education in the 16th Century: https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-protestant-education-in-the-xvith-century/

The Influence of the Protestant Reformation on Education (Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences) by Mihai Androne

More Than Footnotes: Part 3: http://juniaproject.com/more-than-footnotes-part-3-women-reformation-era/

Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Munster: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1688

I Went To A New Church

Over the last few months I’ve started going to a new church. I’ll be honest and say this process hasn’t been easy, but it also hasn’t been as hard as it might have been. I’ve learnt a lot about churches, people and myself, and I thought it was time to reflect on that a bit.

Myself 

I don’t like large crowds of people. I already knew this, but I’ve realized more than ever than a growth group or bible study with a few people is much easier for me than a church service with 60 people.

It’s okay to low expectations of myself in terms of social interaction at church, as long as I get to church. Even if I need to leave five minutes after the service ends or arrive five minutes after it starts, that’s okay – meeting with God’s people is still good and valuable.

Church

My favourite part of church is singing songs about Jesus – for similar reasons to why I like prayerbook services. I think the first function of a church service should be the family of God telling each other the truth we believe about Jesus – through song, through prayer, through reading the Bible.

I’m not sold by the concept of a traditional ‘sermon.’ I don’t think it’s the best way to hear the truth about Jesus, encourage each other and grow in him. It would be different if it wasn’t so hard to preach a good sermon – but it is.

People 

The first conversation isn’t hard. It’s the second, third, fourth conversations that transition into building a relationship that is hard.

People are generally friendly and kind. People are also busy and already in relationships. That’s okay. There will be people with space in their lives for you. Keep meeting people and you’ll find them.

If you’re going to a new church…

Taking it slowly is okay. You won’t feel connected and at home straight away – commit to a certain number of weeks before giving up. Inconsistent attendance is better than nothing.

Small steps all add up. Be friendly and open to possibilities. Keep persisting.

If you’re welcoming new people…

Be willing to not just have that first conversation with someone, but the third and fourth as well.

If you don’t have the energy or room in your life for a new relationship, connecting them with someone who does is a good idea.

Women and The Reformation Part 2 – Women In Action

This is part two in my series on the Reformation and it’s impact on women. You can read part one here. 

What The Reformers Thought About Women

Before continuing to examine how the Reformation changed things for women, I want to pause and take a look at what the Reformers themselves thought and said on this issue. As always, there is a mixed bag of opinions, with contradictory opinions sometimes expressed by the same Reformer. This is a very quick overview, not a detailed analysis, but is neccessary to show the framework the Reformers, including female Reformers, were often dealing with.

John Calvin saw the commands given by Paul about women remaining silent in the church as coming under adiaphora or ‘things indifferent’ – things that could be changed as circumstances also changed. While he did not have women taking on roles of leadership, he was opened to the possibility that churches in a different culture might permit it, or that it would be necessary in times of crisis.

Luther held seemingly contradictory views on women – naming them flighty, vain and weak, yet loving and valuing not only his wife and daughter but many women he worked closely with, as well as defending women publicly, advocating marriage to take more of a shape of a partnership and working to increase educational opportunities for women. For example, he once proclaimed “would that every town had also a girls’ school, in which girls might be taught the gospel.” He established a school in Wittenberg to train young girls in reading, writing, mathematics and music. But Luther viewed education not as a pathway to other vocational opportunities, but as a way to train girls to be good mothers and wives.

Writing

The translation of the Bible into ‘common’ languages (not Greek and Latin) meant that theologians and preachers began preaching and writing in the vernacular as well. This made thoughts on theology available to women for the first time, as previously not even wealthy women were educated in classical languages. This also enabled women to become more involved in writing and publishing because of the Reformation. The Reformation allowed women to write about a ‘masculine’ subject: theology.

Katherine Zell wrote at length about clerical marriage, having married a priest herself, she corresponded with leaders of the Reformation throughout Europe and she wrote a book of meditations on selected Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer. Marie Dentiere is another example of a woman who was writing at this time – she published the first Protestant history of the Genevan Reformation. More importantly, she wrote to Marguerite of Navarre, asking her to protect the persecuted Calvin and Farel, and included a detailed explanation of the woman’s right to read and interpret the Scriptures, which will be looked at in detail in the next section of this series. These women are examples of what was happening all over Europe – women were reading the Bible for themselves, and were able to write and speak on theological subjects, expressing their thoughts and opinions on important matters in a way that had not been available to them previously.

High Profile Protestant Women 

High-profile women were also becoming more involved in writing and reformist thinking. Marguerite of Navarre, the sister of Francis I of France, wrote the Mirror of a Sinful Soul. Similarly, Katherine Parr, the last queen of Henry VIII, wrote a book called the Lamentations of a Sinner which was the first devotional text written in English by a woman.

Marguerite of Navarre had reformist leanings but saw herself as orthodox – Katherine Parr, on the other hand, maintained that people needed live their lives according to the doctrine of the Gospel. She wrote on the evils of the Papacy, and promoted the reading of Scripture and the marriage of priests. She was also around at the same time as several key Protestant woman in England, such as Anne Seymour, the Countess of Hertford, Katherine Brandon, the Duchess of Suffolk and even the Protestant martyr Anne Askew.

Anne Askew was a female preacher, who explained the word of God in English to any who would listen. She was arrested and tortured. Despite this, she refused to recant or name others, and eventually was burnt as a heretic.

Katherine Parr went on to help pave the way to a Protestant regency for her stepson, Edward the Sixth. She also had a key role in guiding Elizabeth of England’s education, teaching her to value the Scriptures. Elizabeth translated Marguerite of Navarre’s Mirror Of The Sinful Soul into English as a present for Katherine, and then the following year translated the first chapter of John Calvin’s Institutes into English. Clearly both women had a shared interest in reformed theology.

Katherine Parr also influenced Jane Grey, who was her ward for a time after the death of Henry VIII and Katherine’s remarriage. I’m going to finish this section of my series on Women and the Reformation with Jane’s story.

She was intended as a Protestant bride for the new boy king, Edward, but when the Edward’s health failed, the succession was rewritten to place Jane next in line – as a great niece of Henry VIII and a great granddaughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

The events of Jane’s short-lived reign generally show a young girl placed in an impossible situation by adults who should have known better. But her faith in the period after this was truly remarkable for a girl only sixteen years old. Mary, the new Queen, daughter of Henry VIII, promised to pardon Jane from the sentence of treason and the punishment of death if she converted to the Catholic faith. But she was staunch in what she believed, knowing that faith and Scripture alone were enough to save her from a fate worse than death. She is a true example of the kind of education the Reformation opened up to women – if Jane had lived a hundred years earlier, she never would have had access to the tutors, books and learning she did. These things gave her confidence in Christ and certainty in what she believed about his death and resurrection to face turmoil and death without fear.

References

Assess the Effects of the Reformation on the Lives of Women in Sixteenth-Century Europe: https://tudorblogger.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/assess-the-effects-of-the-reformation-on-the-lives-of-women-in-sixteenth-century-europe/

Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History – Diana Lynn Severance

Reform and Conflict: From the Medieval World to the Wars of Religion – Rudolph W. Heinze

The European Reformations – Carter Lindberg

The Education of Women in the Reformation (History of Education Quarterly) by Lowell Green

The Protestant Education in the 16th Century: https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-protestant-education-in-the-xvith-century/

The Influence of the Protestant Reformation on Education (Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences) by Mihai Androne

Women and The Reformation Part 1 – The Ordinary Life

The Reformation changed the landscape of faith in Europe and worldwide. Plenty has been written on the history and stages of the Reformation, and I will not try to rehash what has been said already by those with a better understanding of the topic. But for the context of this post, I will summarize the Reformation briefly.

The Reformation was a movement in the 15^th Century, in Europe, where preachers and thinkers began to move away from the traditional structures of the Catholic Church, towards an idea of the priesthood of all believers, with a focus on the Bible being available to everyone in their own language, and of salvation coming through faith in Jesus rather than the offices of the church.

How did this massive shift affect the lives of women? The question of whether it was good or bad for women is too simplistic. I want to explore how it changed things – then we have a starting point to evaluate the merits and drawbacks of this new way of Christian life.

This is not an academic essay, but I will list at the end of this piece the main books and websites that helped my thinking. These would also be good starting points if you wanted to explore this subject further.

Identity

The introduction of the concept of a ‘priesthood of all believers’ was a huge one. This was the idea that all believers had direct access to God through Jesus Christ. All people could have direct access to God through prayer and reading his Word (the Bible). While previously people’s relationship with God was mediated through a male priest, now all were equal before God through grace. Women were being encouraged, for the first time, to read the Bible for themselves. With this came an increased level of education and general literacy for women.

In terms of identity, the Catholic Church had previously portrayed women as saints such as the Virgin Mary, or as temptresses and the root of sin, like Eve. Now, women were grasping a new identity for themselves – redeemed children of God, part of his church family and valued as believers.

In addition, the Reformation placed a stronger emphasis on the whole church body being the ‘bride of Christ’ – a female role, in relationship to Christ Jesus as the bridegroom. This raises other ideas about the different roles in marriage – the bride as subordinate to the husband, the head of the wife.

 

Education

The Reformation changed the nature of Education drastically, especially for girls. Previously, the school system of the Middle Ages relied on parishes or convents running schools. But the Reformers put forth the notion of unrestricted education that was open to all young people, regardless of gender or social class. This transferred the responsibility of education to the political authorities. There was also a new focus on the importance of family education, which gave women a new role as they began to take responsibility for educating their children in Scripture and doctrine. Luther in particular believed it was the parents’ responsibility to bring up their children to become well-read Christians, and that domestic education and schooling went hand in hand for the process of raising educated believers.

This approach to education meant many girls were attending school for the first time, and the question of how to approach the teaching of girls was being asked by more and more people. One interesting sign of the new interest in female education was that people were writing and publishing books on the subject.

Luther and other Reformers felt that girls as well as boys should learn not only religion but also history, classical and modern languages, literature, music, and mathematics. Programs that balanced work and study were proposed for students without academic ambitions. Students were encouraged to spend part of the day studying the rest of their time learning a trade or skills to help them in keeping a home and raising children.

Some Reformers and schools also encouraged intellectually-qualified girls to study the liberal arts, like their brothers; at this time there was also a need for female teachers. However, Luther’s focus on education for girls was primarily to train them to be well rounded mothers and wives. We will look more at the Reformers’ attitudes towards women in the next section of this series.

Home Life

The Reformation placed an emphasis on the family unit as a household of faith. Marriage was viewed as a tool designed by God for the sanctification of Christians. In some ways, this elevated the traditional roles of wife and mother as supremely valuable and integral to the life of the home. Virginity and chastity, while still valued, were no longer idealized and glorified. The role of women in the family was acknowledged and praised in new ways, which some have interpreted as being liberating for women.

The flipside, however, is that choosing a celibate life dedicated to God became much harder to pursue, and was much less valued. No longer was the convent and veil a choice for women who did not wish to marry. In some ways, the changes made life more restrictive for women, in that there was less choice available.

Marriage and motherhood carried intrinsic risks for women; death in childbirth was a reality, as well as the heartbreak of infant mortality. Nuns had traditionally lived longer, not only by avoiding childbirth, but by avoiding the diseases of the masses.

For the ordinary women, the Reformation brought about many changes to their lives, from their identity as children of God, to their increased access to education and the new value placed on their roles in the home. However, things were still a long way from being ‘equal,’ and there were certain disadvantages and restriction of choices that came with these social changes. I’m going to keep exploring wider aspects of how the Reformation changed things for women in the next few parts of this series.

 

 

References

Assess the Effects of the Reformation on the Lives of Women in Sixteenth-Century Europe: https://tudorblogger.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/assess-the-effects-of-the-reformation-on-the-lives-of-women-in-sixteenth-century-europe/

Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History – Diana Lynn Severance

Reform and Conflict: From the Medieval World to the Wars of Religion – Rudolph W. Heinze

The European Reformations – Carter Lindberg

The Education of Women in the Reformation (History of Education Quarterly) by Lowell Green

The Protestant Education in the 16th Century: https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-protestant-education-in-the-xvith-century/

The Influence of the Protestant Reformation on Education (Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences) by Mihai Androne

Advent

Last year I celebrated Advent for the first time. I did it in my own nontraditional way, just reading and praying through the bible passages each day. I wrote this post, which was a lament on behalf of the world after a hard year, and which is still just as relevant for me and the world this year. I didn’t grow up following the traditions of Advent, which means I now get to discover it for myself now as an adult, and make my own traditions.

This year I have a set of Advent cards given to me by a friend. Each day I will turn over the card, read the bible passage, and then write and pray in response. I will actively practice living with patience, waiting for God to act.

There’s something sacred about waiting patiently for God, which is why I have come to love Advent so much. Advent is when we re-enact the waiting and praying for Jesus to come into the world that Israel experienced all those years ago. Advent is also when we live with a heightened awareness that we too are waiting and praying for Jesus to come, to return to this world. Advent reminds us that we live in the Now-But-Not-Yet Kingdom of God.

There’s something special for me as well, in joining in a worldwide community of Christians reading the same passages and praying together as we await the day where we celebrate that God stepped into the world and became human for our sake. It is about slowing down and waiting, acknowledging the patience that is often required in following Jesus. In many ways it is about lamenting the heartbreak we experience here on earth while we wait for Jesus. These are not easy things, but they are also things that I think would make us stronger as a Church if we gave more thought to them – at least once a year anyway.

As the world seems more unpredictable, grounding myself in the routines of following Jesus keeps my feet steady and my heart unafraid. If you are seeking some peace and calm in a turbulent world and a hectic season, I’d encourage you to give Advent a go. You might find that a few minutes of peace and prayer each day, to remind yourself what we are waiting for and WHO we are waiting for will make all the difference.

If you want to know more about Advent, here is a guide to the history, meanings and traditions associated with it. Even if you’re not that curious, I’ve put my favourite part here for you to read anyway:

Advent symbolizes the present situation of the church in these ‘last days,’ as God’s people wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. The church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament: in exile, waiting and hoping in prayerful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Israel looked back to God’s past gracious actions on their behalf in leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus, and on this basis they called for God once again to act for them. In the same way, the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when he returns for his people. In this light, the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” perfectly represents the church’s cry during the Advent season:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appears.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

While Israel would have sung the song in expectation of Christ’s first coming, the church now sings the song in commemoration of that first coming and in expectation of the second coming in the future.

(‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ has always been my favourite Christmas Carol, which probably explains a lot about me). (Link to my favourite version here).

I’ll also leave the links to Sarah Bessey’s Advent series from last year – each post explores the theme associated with each Sunday in the Advent calendar. It’s a helpful place to start thinking about Advent and it’s broader themes.

The First Sunday: Hope

The Second Sunday: Peace

The Third Sunday: Joy

The Fourth Sunday: Love 

Christmas Eve: The Christ Candle

I’m looking forward to Advent – my heart is yearning for the peace and reflection of this season. I hope in the lead up to the joyful season of Christmas you find some space for patient reflection and acknowledgement of the longing and waiting we experience in this world as well.

Gifts, Fellow Workers and Mutual Submission

When I talk about gifts in the setting of advocating an approach to church that involves men and women, I am not talking about a new hierarchy based on gifts. I don’t think church should have a hierarchy at all really, at least not one that looks anything like a worldly hierarchy.

I think the importance of talking about gifts in this context is twofold.

1. Gifts are not distributed based on gender. Though males and females are biologically different, the differences do not always extend to what they are gifted in. For example, it’s been a common belief that because men were historically stronger because of the work they did, they were more equipped for leadership, and because women were responsible for childrearing, they were more equipped for caring and nurturing roles. Both roles are equally important: but what you are gifted with is not dependant on your gender. I know plenty of caring, nurturing males and strong, fearless women.
2. We have been sent on a mission for God, to share his good news and redeeming love with the world. In this task, we should be using all the gifts and resources at our disposal. To not do so is not honouring to God and is not productive to the church.

I also think that valuing gifts to an extent is important. We want skilled preachers, talented musicians and kids church leaders with the right qualifications. We don’t want to be asking people to step up to tasks they aren’t capable of. It’s not fair to them and it’s not honouring to God.

God gives us gifts to serve the church with. Using those gifts well is honouring to God, as it shows we value what he has given us and how he has made us in his image. We want church to be good and to do community together well. That means using what God has given us.

We are all on mission together. To an extent, it doesn’t matter who is ‘in charge’ or directing things. It only matters when the ‘hierarchy’ is being exclusive and not involving the whole church, or when the ‘hierarchy’ is moving in a direction away from what Jesus commanded.

In Jesus, the Church, the people of God, has been transformed. Instead of a temple with priests and sacrifices, with layers and barriers to God, we now have free and open access – for everyone. We don’t need a priest to intervene, and women don’t need a male ordained minister to intervene for them. We are a priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5-9) and we are fellow workers in the Gospel (1 Corinthians 3:5-15). We are a team. If someone takes the lead, it is out of necessity and a desire to see the Gospel work continue.

A Church where everyone is battling for their right to be part of the team and to participate isn’t going to work. Which adds insult to injury when women are left out of the work. We have been commanded by God to do this task: we must answer to God about what we did with our time on earth just like men will. To put us in a position where we must argue for our right to participate in God’s mission is unfair, it’s disruptive to the Church and it distracts everyone from the bigger picture.

I don’t like talking about this issue. I don’t know a single woman who would rather argue about gender roles than get on with serving God. But when roadblocks are put in the way of us joining in God’s mission, we have no choice but to slow down and dismantle them.

What do I think the answer is? Mutual submission.

There’s an imbalance in the system. Mutual submission is needed to clear the playing field, set up an equal footing for everyone, and then we can continue. When we have a mutual playing field, where everyone is submitting to each other out of mutual respect and humility, we can get on with the business of serving God.

Servant leadership and a community based on mutual submission leaves no room for jostling for the chance to use our gifts. Instead we can step back and make room for each other’s’ gifts. It means when someone is appointed in a position of authority, we submit to them – not because they are male or because they are more gifted, but because it is what God commands. It means that in different contexts, we submit to whoever is appointed over us, male or female. This doesn’t mean boosting someone out of a role when a better equipped person comes along. It means at times the person in that role of authority won’t be the most gifted or smoothest looking, and that’s okay. We submit to each other out of love anyway.

Mutual submission means working together as a church to do the task God has given us.

When Equality isn’t Equality

This post is a follow up to this post which explains why I can’t reconcile a gender hierarchy in the church with the nature of God displayed at the cross. It address the most common point raised when I talked about gender hierarchies – ‘but different doesn’t mean unequal,’ and ‘women who want equality just want glory for themselves.’ 

Different doesn’t mean unequal, I think we can all agree. We all play different roles in our church family, and all are important. When I advocate for egalitarian theology, and an approach to church that sees men and women as equal, I am not advocating for a free for all in who gets to do what. I strongly believe in putting the right people in the right roles in how we do church and ministry together.

I just don’t think a prerequisite for any role should be your gender.

If you do think that some roles in church are only for males or only for females, and you genuinely, after thought and consideration, believe this is biblical and God’s plan, I can respect your convictions, even though we disagree.

But you cannot say it is equality. You cannot say it is equal but different.

Definition of Equal: (of people) having the same status, rights, or opportunities.

Definition of Gender Equality: the state in which access to rights or opportunities is unaffected by gender.

If you are barring roles in the church, whether it’s leadership, preaching, teaching or anything else, based solely on gender, you can’t claim to be treating everyone as equal. If you are passing over qualified women purely because they are women, you are discriminating, plain and simple. Even if you think it’s biblical or right, you can’t say it’s equality.

The different by equal argument might work better if there wasn’t a ongoing trend – anything visible, anything with authority or power, anything that represents the church to the world, is given to men. Women are left without a voice, invisible in the background.

When you walk into church as a women and see all the people preaching, leading and teaching are male, it sends a message. Whoever speaks up the front is speaking on behalf of the church, and when it’s only men speaking, it tells women that their voices aren’t wanted or valued.

If we truly are a church of male and female working together, then it’s important our services and ‘public face’ represents that, or we aren’t representing God’s church accurately. We send the message to the world that we are okay with inequality.

Personally, the character of God as I see him in the bible and especially at the cross doesn’t seem to me a God who would be okay with inequality. As my previous post outlined, I can’t reconcile a God who pours out love freely and without hesitation with a God who would install a system of discrimination in his Church.

Then there’s the second issue: that women who argue for equality want the power and equality for themselves. They want attention and authority. I know a lot of women who have stopped talking about this topic because of this. When they say ‘we should have a women leading the service’ people assume they were signing up for the job. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I am speaking up and arguing for inclusion and equality because I see so many talented women around me with amazing gifts that are being overlooked by everyone – including themselves!

I see women who think that using their God-given gifts to tell people about him is an act of disobedience and it breaks my heart – especially when we need their gifts so badly! When women are silent and believe their ideas and opinions are worth less than a man’s, the whole church misses out and the mission of God suffers a setback. I don’t want that to happen.

So many women struggle with this issue – and I am all about opening up spaces for women to talk and discuss and wrestle it out. I’m not about argument for the sake of argument or controversy for the sake of controversy. I’ve heard men tell women that this is a ‘side issue’ distracting them from Jesus – well, it might be a side issue if you’re a man. If you’re a women, it’s your whole life, your whole faith and your whole purpose that’s being debated. It’s pretty hard for me to see that as a side issue.

I Can’t Reconcile A Gender Hierarchy With The Cross

If you know me at all or have even glanced back through this blog, you’ll know that I’ve been thinking and reading about the role of women in the church and how equality and theology collide. I tentatively hold egalitarian theology, though I am still trying to figure out what that means.

There are lots of complicated reasons women go looking for answers on this subject, but the truth behind my search is a bit simpler. Essentially: I can’t reconcile a gender hierarchy in the church with the nature and character of God as seen on the cross and through scripture.

I can’t reconcile a God who loved us so much that he let Jesus die for men and women with a Church where anyone is less valued, less included, less wanted because of their gender.

I can’t reconcile equal-but-different or different-but-equal with the God who poured out grace indiscriminately, the Jesus who valued women so much that they were the first to see him after he was resurrected, and who tore down barriers between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female.

As Kelly Ladd Bishop put it in this article: the basic idea that God ordains a gender hierarchy is completely counter to God’s character, and the entire message of redemption in scripture.

Patriarchy is an imperfect and broken system. It is a result of sin and the fall. You simply need to look at patriarchal societies in our world today to see that. A system or structure that treats humans as less than other humans isn’t in line with God’s vision for humanity. He made us in his image, to be male and female in relationship, not to be seller and sold, owner and slave.

Jesus came to destroy sin and to destroy all the effects it has on our world – including broken systems like the patriarchy. Jesus. didn’t settle for making sinful systems nicer or injustices kinder or cloaked in nicer language. He came to abolish them.

God tears down broken systems. He frees us from sin and all of our brokenness. We are now called to live in God’s family, where sinful structures have no place. We are called to model redemption to the world. Inequality, oppression and hierarchies have no place here.

Why then would the good God who intervened wholeheartedly by stepping into our world and dying on a cross install a gender hierarchy in the church? I don’t think he did.

I don’t think the church is meant to work like that. I don’t think the family of God is meant to work like that. I think when you trust Jesus you follow him with your whole heart and life and you serve him how you can. I don’t think there’s time or room to be worrying about who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ and who is allowed to do what and what counts as preaching and who can be taught by who and who can say what. I don’t think we have time or energy to waste.

God has set us on a mission to bring light to a dark world and we’re bickering about who gets to hold the candles. We all do. We’re all in. We have to be, or we will never get it done.

Whatever your thoughts on this, can we agree we have wasted enough time? Can we agree it’s consistently humiliating for Christian women when we become an ‘issue’ to be debated? Can we agree it is beyond insulting that books have to be written and conferences have to be held and people have to voice their opinions, hurtful or not, before we are permitted to get on with the job of serving Jesus?

I’m sick of being an issue. I’m sick of people arguing that this is equality while women are barred from positions and left out of discussions. I’m sick of us all being caught up in this dangerous distraction. We’re all in. We’re on mission together. Let’s act like it.

Image Bearers and the Trinity

This is a topic I wrote about in relation to gender and my thoughts while reading ‘Half the Church,’ by Carolyn Custis James in Part 2 (Image Bearing) and Part 3 (the Trinity). But it’s such an interesting topic that I felt I could write a whole other post on it.

The Trinity. If you’re vague on theological terminology or need a reminder, the Trinity is the concept that God as God exists in three separate parts (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) that are also one being and inseparable from each other. It’s a paradox, it’s complicated and people far smarter than me struggle to explain it so I won’t try. For now, let’s accept the paradox and embrace the unique nature of our God and explore what is means for us in our ‘image bearing’ in his world.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:26-7 (NIV).

We were created in God’s image, to reflect his nature, his likeness, his qualities: his essence. We were to be all that God is and nothing that he isn’t: we were to rule his world, the world he created for us, in his place, as his representatives. We were to be blessed caretakers who would never lack for anything.

Well that didn’t quite work out. If you’re familiar with the bible story you will know that when humanity was tempted by the false promise of more, it didn’t resist for long. When it turned out the promise was false (of course it was false – who can offer anything but God? What more could humanity be given when God had given them everything?) we hid from God in shame. We had forfeited the right to represent him.

Let’s skip ahead through the story to the cross. The cross is where everything that went wrong in the beginning was made right. God, three in one, used his nature to save us. The Son, Jesus came to earth as fully God and fully man (another paradox – for another day). He submitted to the Father’s will and at the cross he took the price for our shame and he restored us as image bearers and children of God. Then the Father stepped in and raised Jesus to life – proving not even death is too much for God to handle. Jesus left the earth and his friends with the promise of the Spirit – the presence of God with us here on earth and in our hearts. Then he gave God’s representatives a new command.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

We are called to make image bearers, representatives of God. We are called to show God’s likeness in the world, to show people from all nations and all places who God is and what he is life.

On our own though, we can’t. How can we reflect a threefold God individually? How can we show the constant self-sacrificing and relationships dynamics of the Trinity on our own? We can’t.

When we live out God’s image in relationships and community with each other though, we can. When we constantly self sacrifice and give up and put ourselves last for the people in our church and our lives, we can. When we practice mutual submission – giving up our rights because we know each person in our community will also give up their rights for us – we can.

The Trinity is a mutual, giving, sacrificial force. When we love and serve each other we can fully reflect the nature of God. When we try to live life on our own or maintain our faith on our own, we can’t reflect God truly or do his amazingly complex nature justice.