Last Friday the Gender Parity Project released the results of its study of the role of women among evangelical non-profit organizations. Most of the men surveyed affirmed an egalitarian stance toward women in leadership positions, but the study also found that women have barely broken the 20 percent barrier in terms of board and paid leadership positions. Such findings should not surprise. Women play complicated roles in Evangelicalism, all worked out within the framework of Protestantism’s emphasis on maximizing lay participation.
When Origen wrote in the third century that apostolic authority sanctioned female ministers in the Church because of Phoebe, it is difficult to know precisely what he meant. Writing in the twelfth century, Peter Abelard thought Origen was referring to deaconesses, and he quoted a number of patristic sources to support their role among Greek-speaking churches. Keen on connecting this to his own time, he noted that “we now call these women abbesses, that is, mothers.”
Read Full Article »