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In devoting an issue of Network to the subject of
Women’s Ministry, it is inevitable that several articles will be concerned
with the question of ordained ministry. We welcome this, including the
debate as to whether women seeking to become priests should act ‘contra
legem’ now, and perform their ministry on the margins. Should they instead
participate in the struggle to change the whole nature of the priesthood
into something closer to the vision of Christ as articulated to his
disciples, and represented in his own life: in effect, service to humanity?
There is also the discussion as to whether the concept of ‘the priesthood of
the faithful’ means that all followers of Christ are priests. It is clear
from the Gospels that everyone is called to some form of ministry.
One of the problems for women is that the nature of ministerial tasks often
means that people who perform them are downgraded. The jobs that women have
traditionally taken, whether for remuneration, for biological reasons, or
out of the goodness of their hearts, have always been associated with
service: childcare, nursing the sick, preparing food etc. In fact, there is
a strong resemblance between such occupations and the ‘corporal works of
mercy’ listed in the old Catechism, and, indeed, to the criteria for
inclusion in the Kingdom of God: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty
and you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed
me, sick or in prison and you visited me … (Matthew 25: 35-36). I am not of
course suggesting that men do not also participate in such acts of mercy,
but rather indicating the way in which women’s occupations have often been
directly associated with caring – rather than more ‘masculine’ employments
such as engaging in finance, running a country, fighting a war. Is there a
danger that in rejecting being pigeonholed as carers, while legitimately
claiming their rights to be involved in the more prestigious and better-paid
jobs, women may lose their association with ministry with a small ‘m’?
The answer surely lies not in women rejecting their traditional ministries
towards the young, the old and the sick, or to those needing instruction and
consolation, but in the realisation that all humans are called towards such
activities: ‘Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, that
you do unto me’ (Matthew 25:40).
Pat Pinsent
Women in Ministry
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