Poll for WOMEN who attend church regularly...

[Barb D]

This is NOT inspired by recent stories in the news, but by issues I'm dealing with in my own life.

How do you, personally, feel about your church/denomination's policy on women in leadership in the church? (I'm speaking here of ruling and teaching positions such as pastors or elders, not about deacons or Sunday School teachers for women and children.)

Men, feel free to post opinions, but the poll options are for women only.

ETA for Zippa D Doodah's sake: I put "allow" in quotes because I couldn't think of a better (and short!) word to use to get my point across.

..Women are "allowed" (although I don't like that word so much, but that's another topic )

 

[Nevergrow'nup]

My church allows and encourages women deacon's! In abook we are reading in bible study, we read about how Jesus revered women and taught them how to worship!

 

[mrsltg]

I opened the bulletin at mass last Saturday and there was a letter from our pastor stating the bishop was allowing each church in the diocese to determine whether or not they wanted female alter servers. When Father Kyle announced in his sermon that it was decided that indeed, we would have females on the alter, the church broke out in spontaneous applause. I belong to one of the most rigid dioceses in the country. This was a BIG deal.

I wish the Church would reconsider its position on female priests....

 

[Disney Doll]

The dreaded Roamn Ctholic here.

While we have many women in posiions of authority within the church, the priest position and higher is all male.

I disagree with that premise. I don't make a huge issue of it because for me, despite the human failings of the religion, the beliefs still work for me.

 

[Mercy]

I don't believe our denomination/church allows women to be Senior Pastors, which I agree with.

We do, however, allow women to be deacons. Our Asst. Pastor, who is our Youth Pastor and Childrens Pastor is a woman, she is great!

BTW I voted for "other", since my situation was not a choice.

 

[roseprincess]

I and dh are members of a community church, actually a megachurch in the Chicago suburbs. We have about 5 teaching pastors, they team teach.
One of the pastors is a woman. She occasionally teaches for the weekend services, but she is also head of the programming team for hte weekend services. She has been around for the history of our church, 30 yrs.
We also have women on the board of elders and board of directors.

I used to go to a very small (about 150 in the congregation) ultra conservative independent baptist church about 20 yrs. ago. It was a traditional church, as of women didn't have any leadership roles and we were not allowed to listen to music with a drum beat to it (yes, this was actually taught at that church). Left that church after 5 yrs and checked out the church that I am at now. What a huge difference in churches!


Rosemarie

 

[clarabelle]

Presbyterian USA here
Not only do I agree with my churches stance on allowing women complete equality it is a small part of why I choose this denomination

 

[princesspumpkin]

Pentecostal here. Church of God In Christ (AKA Holiness) Typically, a pretty strict denomination. (no pants, no women in high ups, etc.) My pastor is the Bishop for our jurisdiction. We have female elders, and our pastor's wife is an Evangelist, who sits beside him in the pulpit. We have many female guest pastors/speakers. The Evangelists always give the 'Words og Gods Promises" (basically, scripture with interpretation - but done each week). I was brought up in a COGIC church in the south. It was totally different. I like my church now. I have no problem with women in leadership. I feel that everyone interprets the Bible differently.

 

[Melissa M]

Methodist here. We allow women to be senior pastors and I love it! I love the female perspective and I feel that women tend to be more nurturing.

 

[Pigeon]

I would not attend a church that didn't support gender equality in the ministry, nor could I ever raise daughters in such a church. I was raised in a church that did not allow women to be priests and I found it soul-crushing.

 

[MzDiz]

I'm really surprised at how many women think that it's ok for their church to not allow women in leadership roles. It saddens me. Isn't that akin to saying that you're not as good as a man?

I can feel myself getting flamed on this already, but before you flame me, answer the question.

 

[SC Minnie]

Presbyterian USA here
Not only do I agree with my churches stance on allowing women complete equality it is a small part of why I choose this denomination

Same here.

I remember when I was young my mother made some sort of announcement in church about the youth group or something (she was a youth advisor). My grandfather (her father) who was baptist had a fit when he found out that she had spoken in front of the church.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We go to a conservative baptist church. I am not really happy with it but there isnt much choice here and we are moving anyway in several years so we will just stick it out. Our church seems to be like women should be seen and not heard. They even went to the point once of having a man read a speech a woman was suppose to be reading. Sigh, sigh, They have actually changed that now and women do get up to speak, but its closely monitored, they also said women could collect the money etc, I have never seen that happen, nor are there any female greeters etc. I dont attend the sunday school classes so I dont know about that. We have different ministry councils and all must be supervised by an elder, suprise, all male again. We are going to be moving to texas and will go to a southern baptist church, they seem pretty strict with their women issues too, at least the one we used to go to. If I really wasnt happy I would look elsewhere, as long as I was using my spiritual gifts I wouldnt have a problem. Blessings to you.

 

[ozarkmom]

I became a Methodist about 10 years ago. Over the last couple of years I've been torn about some of things in this religion. I've not been able to make my mind up about the women as Pastors. Sometimes I think it's great then I read scripture that leads me to believe it's wrong. Don't flame me I'm just being honest. Also this isn't really one of the issues that's been bothering me about the church but I do think about it from time to time.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I'm Methodist and yes we have women in all positions in the Church.

In fact, one of our long time Church members will be graduating from the Univ. of Indiana this year and beginning Divinity Studies to become a Pastor of the United Methodist Church. Our Church supports her fully with Summer Missionary Internships and we occassionaly invite her to come and give Sunday sermons.

It has been fascinating to watch her grow from the Child who could barely stand in front of the congregation and say 3 sentences without nearly dying from fright to being capable of giving 45 minute Sermons.

 

[ElizK]

I currently attend a Baptist church. Used to go to a non-denominational church. Neither have women as pastors/deacons/elders, except in the women's ministry and children's ministry. I have no problem with this whatsoever. That's not to say that women have no place in the church. Each of those pastors/deacons/elders are supported and helped by their wives who play a very active role with the men. Men aren't "better" than women. Just different. Not a good thing or a bad thing. It just is.

 

[clarabelle]

Ozark Mom- I don't reconcile it with scriptures.
This is how I see it:
We all no matter how conservative or liberal or evangelical or whatever use some kind of discernment when we apply the scriptures to our daily lives and the way we worship.
No one does everything that the Bible says. For one thing the Bible has some contridictions -also we don't follow ancient laws (like the ones in the the old testament-say not eating pork). Or for example in the new testament when Jesus says something to the effect of "give everything away and follow me"
How many people do you know that have done that?
So no matter what -there is some picking and choosing and interpreting.

The role of women in the church is something that I do not have a scripture back up. It is one of those areas where I decided to make a choice.
The church has been changing -reforming for almost two thousand years. I believe this is one of those changes.

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

Well, I am UU and over 50% (I believe it is somewhere between 51 and 52) of our ministers are women. We don't really have "elders" but we do have women take leadership roles in the congregation - board members and what not.

The church that I grew up in, however, did not allow women to do anything that might be thought of as having authority over a man - couldn't teach sunday school if an adult male was present - couldn't lead a prayer where an adult male was present - this was CoC by the way.

 

[Barb D]

Well, I am UU ...

What is UU? Unitarian Universalist?

 

[Amapola]

One of the reasons (not the only one) I left the RCC for the Episcopal church is the existence of female priests and bishops. Although in my parish we have a male priest, I have attended services where the celebrant was a woman and the first time it blew my mind! Still does, actually... to think that I spent 46 years of my life in a church that doesn't value my gender as equal. I love that the cornerstones of the Episcopal church are scripture, tradition and reason.