Holy Hush

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Holy Hush, a seminar on abuse within the church. The church being referred to is not the Adventist Church only but all churches, the wider body of Christ.

Abuse doesn't happen in my church? Well, when you consider the various ways in which abuse is committed, anyone would be pretty hard pressed to say that it doesn't happen in their local congregation let alone the wider body.

Verbal abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, spiritual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and satanic abuse- you name it and it was discussed. We talked about the various ways in which we rationalise it, make excuses for it and even accept it. Think about the jokes we hear from all manner of comedians about the beatings they received (and that some of us received). We laugh about it and even reminisce about it saying, 'it didn't do us any harm'. The fact is, it has had an impact. The fact, is has left scares, but they are scares that no one ever talks about until an event such as Holy Hush.

Successive generations have beat their children and the consequences of violence are there for all to see. Gun and knife crime aren't just being increasingly reported in the press, they are happening more frequently and when we look at the legacy that has been left for our children, we shouldn't be surprised.

Then we talked about 'little wife', something practiced by married men in some African countries. It is a an unwritten protocol which allows a man to inappropriately touch and to also fondle the breasts of his wife's younger sister. It is done in the name of culture but it can lead to penetrative sex - usually without his wife's knowledge. It is sexual abuse in the name of culture but there are parameters which can be overstepped.

Culture should play no place in our religious practices but all to often it does. Should Pastors and members alike hold on to culture for culture's sake? Isn't God's culture more important? Aren't his expectations more important than the expectations of our cultural group?

It was a busy and long day and there was much to be discussed and some of it was a little lighter in nature. The practice of giving libation to the ancestors in return for their favour was also addressed. All of which is permitted even within Christian religions and is also carried out by church leaders and pastors. What cultural practices will I hold onto while telling members that they need to let go of their old practices, their life of sin and their old self? I hope none.

It is all too easy to point the finger from our hermetically sealed western environments and I had to consider how we too have our challenged within the church. What would you do if a young woman comes before you church board and she is grilled because she is pregnant and not yet married? Would you allow board members to ask her details of where and when she had sex, who she had sex with and, if you would permit such questioning, would you also require that the young man is also questioned? What if the child is stamp the Head Elder or one of one of the Deacons? All things that Systematic Theology, Hebrew or Biblical Studies fail to address and that is why I was fortunate to be at this meeting. It has given me the opportunity to reflect on what might be.

I was grateful to Womaash for puttingon Holy Hush, for allowing churches to come together to discuss abuse, for bringing it out in the open and giving me an opportunity for thinking about what I would need to do when in ministry.

I would be even more pleased for other students to havethe same opportunity to hear what I heard from the mouths of some who were brave enough to stand up and tell their personal stories or rape, sexual and physical abuse. Every ministerial student should consider what they would do and how they would tackle abuse within the church before going into ministry. We all need to be aware of the practices which perpetuate it and we should certainly know where to turn to so that members receive the professional care they need. All ministerial students need to think about how they might have to alter their ministerial practices to challenge beliefs, cultural practices and their own understanding which can inadvertently give rise to abuse.

The final question I will leave you with is, should time be set aside so that Womaash can come here to address the issue before we go offinto our churches in all the different countries which we represent and how best can that be facilitated?

Imagine the impact that it would have!

More Questions than Answers

It would be interesting to hear now about any comments received by women theology students while at seminary or while out in the local churches.

The reason I ponder on those comments is because, being a fourth generation Adventist women who was never given any indication that there were any areas of life which I was excluded from, I often ask myself where conversations on the role of women in ministry stem from. Are they real? Are the restrictions on women in ministry new or have restrictions always existed? Did I miss out on the conversations are was there a complete lack of discussion because it had never even been considered a possibility? And, what is the basis is for current conversations and debates? Is sensitivity to such debates heightened by a situation which really does exist out there and is there real and tangible opposition to women in the ministry? Or is there more support than people would let on? Will these questions be answered while we are still in seminary or will real opposition only come once we get out there and are posted in a church?

If the answer to that last question are yes, then how much of our attention will be focussed on trying to do the day-job rather than establishing an effective ministry which reaches the needs of the local community? If our energies are negatively refocused in this way will we be able to fulfil our calling to the ministry?

I know this poses more questions that it does answers but that reflects the complexity of the matter, the myriad of unanswered questions which do exist and which, many generations from now, women ministerial students and women ministers may still be asking.

Rather than answering any questions, I am going to leave one more for consideration and, possibly even comments. What was the basis for the decision to do nothing unless and until every conference votes in the affirmative? And how can that decision be taken when there is no baseline data to support the decision?

Carole Williams

Women Should Refrain from Speaking in Church!?!?

Many people find themselves in hot water when they quote Paul’s first letter to Timothy and assume that he was suggesting that women should stay at home and that they should not be able to teach in church.

Two thousand years later and this text is being used to discourage women from entering the ministry or, if they do enter the ministry, it is used to stop them playing a full role.

Interesting, however, readers continue to make the same perennial mistake and take the text out of its socio-historical setting. They also fail to appreciate or to recognise that there are different kinds of passages within the Bible. There are those which a) describe events practices at that time and b) to describe teach principles for universal application.

The passage in 1 Timothy 2:9-15 describes events and practices.

Without putting much effort anyone who is interested can find out that Paul was encouraging Timothy to confront false teachings within the church at Ephesus because his own trip was going to be delayed. In the meantime, his set his words down on paper and suggested that Timothy tell the women in that day and at that time to refrain from teaching as their teachings were false. They were, however, not alone in giving false teachings. There was much of it going on in the church and the men had an equal part to play.

It is also clear from reading other passages that Paul was, in fact, supportive of women in the ministry. See for example Romans 16:1,2,7 and Philippians 4:2,3. Note that, it is in this passage that the only female apostle is mentioned and that, despite the ongoing debate among scholars about the identification of Junia, no record of the male name "Junias" has ever been discovered in extra-biblical Greek literature. (What ever you think about women as minister, read the book reveiw about Junia or even buy the book for yourself.)

Paul also referred to Priscilla as ‘a fellow worker in Christ’ Jesus (Rom 16:3) and of Euodia and Syntyche, he said, ‘these women who laboured with me in the gospel’ (Philippians 4:3).

In reality, there is neither the time nor the space in this blog to do justice to the depth of study needed to tackle the sort of comments thrown at women as they go through seminary but there are plenty of resources on the internet which can be used to help deal with the simplistic generalisations we all too often hear.

Whatever your thoughts, this would make a good dissertation for Greek scholars out there!


Carole Williams