Lynne

I am shocked, but not really surprised by this horrible story. I thank God for the strength he has given you to maintain your ministry under this.

I have a story to tell. I live in Sydney Australia, and the church I grew up in was not particularly conservative, so it wasn’t until I got married at 22 and joined my husband’s church that I really encountered full-blown complementarianism. I was invited to do a course called “The Philosophy of Christian Womanhood’ (does it still exist?) which rammed the whole submission issue down my throat so forcibly that I was left believing that God would be angry with me if I did anything other than raise children and concede to my husband’s every wish. The atmosphere was such that when my husband (an elder) was asked to take on an extra responsibility at church which he didn’t want and really didn’t have time for, and he evaded it by saying, “I’ll have to talk to my wife about that” jokes went around the church for weeks about his ‘unsubmissive’ wife! (who hadn’t actually said/done anything)

A long story ensues, which includes dealing with heavy abuse issues from childhood onward along the way. Eventually (1999) I ended up in a different denomination where the pastor was quite supportive of women. With 2 other women from the church I went to a conference interstate whose highlight, for me, was when a man got up and apologised to the women there for the way in which the church has treated women. It was a major time of healing for me, from a wound I hadn’t really known was there. I went to that conference as a wife and mother whose children had almost grown up, and who had no thought of being anything else, I came home knowing that god had called me to study theology.

Again, I am cutting a long story short, but i eventually graduated with a BTh from an inter-denominational college (I couldn’t face my own denomination’s college because of their attitude towards women. I knew a woman who went to that college and occasionally preached as a student minister. On Monday mornings when she came back to college for another week, her fellow students (especially the women) would ask her, “Did you sin this weekend?” A PROMINENT PASTOR HERE HAS BEEN QUOTED AS SAYING THAT IT IS A SIN FOR A WOMAN TO PREACH AND A SIN FOR A MAN TO LISTEN TO HER

I graduated dux of my college, although I was 53 with no previous degrees. I have since completed a Masters in Adult Education from a prominent local university. I get occasional preaching spots in my local church, and have never had anything except a favourable response to the quality of my preaching. And I have nothing to do beyond a sermon 4-6 times a year. I can’t get ordained because of my gender though I can tick every biblical requirement. I have friends from my former church who have asked me to my face how I can justify what I’m doing. I feel like a wasted resource, and i am asking God a lot of hard questions. And one of thew most frustrating things? Hardly anyone I know takes my calling seriously — even friends who have no problems with the role of women in the church per se don’t take it terribly seriously — occasional preaching is apparently a nice little hobby for me, and this from the same people who are the first to tell me that I have been gifted in this area. Because I don’t financially need to work, it can’t possibly be important!