SOME CHURCHES DON'T WANT WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP?

Women should be in positions of leadership in churches. They can be compassionate leaders.

I am reading a very disturbing novel my brother-in-law sent me about the priest who abused children. Over and over it questions the presence of compassion.

Carol

Of course women are wanted in the church. Who else will look after the men?

One thing you'd have to say about women clergy. They don't bugger the choirboys.

Yet.

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Yet.

LOL

I can't WAIT to see that "you've come a long way, baby" ad.

Abe F. March wrote:

Of course women are wanted in the church. Who else will look after the men?

The men will look after themselves and probably do just fine.

Alice, Joan Borysenko had that problem, too. She even wrote a book about what to do about it, called A Woman's Journey to God. I started reading it yesterday, as soon as it was delivered. I will let you know about her answers as I read more.

Ann

Ann,

I read that book and it is very good. I am definitely for women in church leadership.

Carol

Alice, I'm getting into Chapter 3
"intuition and Reason: Jacob's Ladder and Sarah's Circle"


Thought you might find these bits relevant.

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The journey to God is one of spiritual connection to a greater whole. The whole is not somewhere above us, a place to which we ultimately ascend. It is found within us here and now. Whatever our image of God and way of worship, the journey is one of connection to our own deepest self.

Remember Jacob's dream of a ladder to Heaven? Borysenko compares it to masculine "reason." Finding God is a linear climb of rules and regulations and the right way to reach this high place.

She writes:

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From my feminine perspective, the spiritual journey is less a matter of climbing up than of looking in and discovering the Inner Light that has been there all along.

Abraham's wife, Sarah is ger representative for the OT feminine, which is more about intuition than reason.

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The story of Jacob's ladder is explicit, but the story of Sarah's circle has to be ferreted out, intuited...The entire Jewish lineage is part of Sarah's circle in that they are her descendants. She is the elder, the grandmother, the kin keeper, the invisible matrix out of which a new tribal religion grew....
The ladder process, the hero's journey of psychospiritual individuation, is a measured course of logical steps. The goal and destination are obvious. The circular process is more unplanned, unexpected, intuitive and irrational. It leaves room for God to change our path at any time, and suggests that we are not always the "doer." Unseen forces and circumstances can provoke sudden transformation that comes through us rather than from our own will.....
The majority of men set goals and measure success by achievement. The majority of women tell me that the major accomplishments of their lives came through a confluence of unexpected events...having intuited the right path as it opened in front of them, rather than consulting a map that led to a specific destination.

I feel, as I read, that I'm reading about my own life.

Have to get back to reading more.

Would like to hear more about yours as you read.

Ann

We are all posting at the same time, it seems Like a circle??

Ann

Next time my husband goes upstairs I'm going to have him look for that book so I can read with you. We can be a sort of book club.

I understand growing spiritually in this life. It is the next that baffles me.

Carol

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If the men do not want women, they will make it
tough for them to lead.

Tell me about it. When I first moved to SA and started attending services for the first time in a quarter of a century, I met a group of single women - mostly widows or divorcees - ranging from their mid-forties to their late seventies. I started, after a few weeks, during the after-service gatherings for coffee, going around to several of them and telling them I had a hot lunch waiting at my house, a few blocks away, for anyone who wanted to drop by. The first Sunday I had two guests. We grew to the point I was not only filling the dining table, but setting the kitchen table and even adding a bridge table in the study. By that time, all I provided was a chicken or a roast. The kitchen would be filled with more veggies, sides, and desserts than we could eat. We started taking weekend trips to Port Aransas and Saturday excursions through the wine country or lavender farms, and celebrating each others birthdays at local restaurants. One of the (male) leaders was overheard saying, that it was a poor situation when the most powerful and growing group in the congregation was the old single biddies.

Our rector resigned and after a while we got a new one. Things started changing in a more patriarchal direction, and many of the ladies, including myself, stopped attending. My daughters came back into my life and wanted Sunday to be our family day, so the luncheons have stopped. Some of us from the old group still do birthdays and holiday get-togethers, where the spirituality is still strong, but the religious part of it has fizzled.


BTW, Joan(I'm reading enough to think of her in a first-name fashion, especially since her first name is much shorter), has a great quote from another author I like, Carol Gilligan, "...about the story of Adam and Eve, when you try to make a woman out of a man, you are bound to get into trouble."

Ann