Female Priests
by Mike James
The Church of Sweden recently announced that Swedish female priests outnumber male Swedish priests for the first time in the sixty years since females were permitted to become priests.
Of the 3,060 priests currently serving in Sweden, 1,533 are female, which is 50.1 percent, according to Cristina Grenholm, secretary for the Church of Sweden. The Church of Sweden Lutheran Confession is listed as representing 60.2 percent of Sweden’s population. Sweden is one of the most liberal nations in the world, so this development is not surprising. But other countries and churches are following along with the Swedish example.
The concept of female ministers is becoming more prevalent in Christianity. From the early 1990s through 1999 just 5 percent of the senior pastors of Protestant churches were female. Since that time the proportion has slowly but steadily risen, doubling to 10 percent in 2009. In the United Church of Christ and Unitarian Universalist denominations, there is the same number of women as men in the clergy.
“Fifty years ago there were virtually no women leading congregations as pastors in America except in a few Pentecostal and a handful of mainline churches,” according to Eileen R. Campbell-Reed, associate professor of practical theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary and co-director of the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project. “In the decade of the 1970s growth in women’s ordination exploded and continued to rise steadily through the next four decades.”
According to Campbell-Reed’s study, State of Clergywomen in the U.S.: A Statistical Update, combining 2017 figures from the American Baptist Churches USA, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church, women made up 32 percent of total clergy.
Women cannot be ordained in the two largest U.S. religious groups: the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. Women cannot be ordained in the Church of God International, either.
Our reason for not ordaining women is scriptural. In the Old Testament, God chooses men to lead his people (Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc). God’s biblical prophetic books were all provided by men. God is described as our Father rather than our mother. Jesus Christ came to the earth as a man. First Timothy 3:2 tells us a bishop, or overseer (clergy), must be the husband of one wife. This obviously implies this position was to be held by a man. Yes, Deborah was a judge in Israel and there were and can be female prophetesses, but those examples are different from who should be an Elder in the Church. Some will argue times were different back when the Bible was written, but there are other scriptural reasons.
Another example is provided in Ephesians 5:22-24, where husbands are given the lead role over women in marriage. What men sometimes forget is the rest of Ephesians 5, where we read men are to treat their wife in marriage like Christ treats the Church. Christ also led 12 male disciples, and the Levitical priests were all males. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul appears to be addressing proper worship, and he mentions not allowing women to teach or have authority over men in the worship service context (verses 12-13). Perhaps a prophetess could have said something in a first-century church service, but I am aware of no prophet or prophetess operating in the church presently. As we get closer to the end this will occur (Acts 2:17).
In today’s Western society this adherence to an all-male eldership seems behind the times to some. No doubt women’s intellectual skills are equal to men. Some women know their Bible better than some elders. We should look for more opportunities for gifted women to teach and evangelize outside the church service. There are examples of this in Scripture (Acts 18:24-26). But I believe there is a reason God has given women and men certain roles in the flesh. I believe most women are better suited to be the primary caretaker of children. That does not mean a man should not do his part as a father, but the natural differences of men and women do provide for most women to have an advantage over most men when it comes to raising the children.
But more importantly let’s not forget what the most important job in society is—the raising of children. There is no more important position in life than the job of raising a child. The attention and nurturing a mother provides early on to her children (or lack thereof) is a major influence in how a child will turn out as an adult. Our society today has lost sight of this great truth.
Western society today is promoting the idea that women need to be keeping up with men in the workplace. Many women have to work today for a family to make ends meet. Some couples don’t have children and there are many single people. Obviously those women will not have a focus on raising children. But the church should promote the concept that the role of women in a family is of greater value than having women as the primary bread winners. Some women can do it all, and more power to them. But, in my opinion, the most important job in society is raising a child from birth to adulthood. God has decided women should have the primary role in this endeavor (Genesis 3:16; Proverbs 29:15; Proverbs 31:27-28; 1 Timothy 5:14; Titus 2:4-5). I think that tells us how important God sees the role of women in this world.
Sources:
“Female Priests Outnumber Male Counterparts,” www.france24.com/en, 22 July 2020, in Midnight Call, October 2020, p. 31.
“Number of Female Senior Pastors in Protestant Churches Doubles in Past Decade,” The Barna Group, https://www.barna.com/research/number-of-female-senior-pastors-in-protestant-churches-doubles-in-past-decade/, September 14, 2009.
“Report Details Trends for U.S. Women Clergy,” The Christian Century, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/news/report-details-trends-us-women-clergy, October 30, 2018.