A myth busted about women’s ordination

“The modern push for women’s ordination did not emerge from careful biblical exegesis or development of doctrine within the Christian Tradition. Rather, it emerged from second-wave feminism, which itself borrowed heavily from Marxist ideology.” That’s a quote from a writer, Venerable Canon Dr Kenneth D. Gillespie, OSC, a member of the Anglican Church of North America, on the conservative virtueonline website.

It’s all a Marxist or neo-Marxist or Cultural Marxist plot, isn’t it?

Well, not really. And while Gillespie is writing from within the United States Anglican culture war, where the Episcopal Church is certainly strongly influenced by critical theory, this piece will not repeat the “Is Critical Theory Marxist?” debate.

But instead, we will examine the question of whether women’s ordination “emerges” from second wave feminism – the feminist wave of the 1960s to 1980s that ironically had left-wing women criticising the Marxist-Leninist foundations of the left.

1. Tell that to Winifried Kiek. The first woman formally ordained as a minister (in 1927 by the Congregational Union) as the pastor of the Colonel Light Gardens Church in inner south Adelaide.
2. The Australian Dictionary of Biography records, “Several of her sermons were published in the Christian World Pulpit; they were thoughtful, clear expositions of liberal theology. Some expressed her views on the status of women, from whom she held that Christ had removed ‘the curse’ of inferiority.”
3. Tell that to Janet Lancaster, founder of the first permanent Pentecostal church in Australia, Good News Hall in 1909. Tell that to the many women who quickly became leaders of early Australian Pentecostalism. And of course, Aimee Semple McPherson, the Pentecostal firebrand that Janet Lancaster brought to Australia, and spread Pentecostal flames across Australia.
4. Tell that to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a major training ground for social activism and a key part of the first wave feminists and the suffrage movement. It had strong leaders, including Hilda Burnard (a Methodist) and Phyllis Duguid (a Presbyterian). 
5. Tell that to Missionaries: “In 1925, approximently 59 per cent of Australia’s cross cultural missionaries were women. Between 1914 and 1932 the CMS sent out 153 missionaries of whom 104 were women. Between 1915 and 1938 the Methodists sent out 223 missionaries of whom 141 were women, while in the period 1914 to 1938 the Baptists sent an extra 58 missionaries of whom 43 were women to their celebrated mission in Bengal.” (Stuart Piggin and Robert D. Linder, Attending the National Soul, p. 155, quoting Janet West’s Daughters of Freedom.)
6. Tell that to Gafcon’s East African churches: Kenya and South Sudan have women bishops, Tanzania and Uganda have women clergy. This can be traced to the formative experience of revival. “The first feature of equality in the East African Revival fellowship was the changed status of women. The egalitarian norm of the movement ensured the full participation of girls and women in the fellowship. This included preaching and taking leadership positions. They were committed to spiritual equality of all believers. In 1936, Juliana Mfuko, a young girl from Kigezi in Southern Uganda, heard the revivalists preaching near her home. She converted after being influenced by the Holy Spirit. Juliana was empowered and started speaking in public, preaching and witnessing about Christ both in Church and in the revival fellowship.” Emily Onyango, “Gender Equality in the East African Revival Movement”, African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research (AMJR). Vol. 4 (1), 2019.
7. Tell that to Catherine Booth, who, as co-founder of the Salvation Army, championed women’s ministry from the start: “Commentators say, ‘If women have the gift of prophecy, they must not use that gift in public.’ But God says, by His prophet Joel, they shall use it, just in the same sense as the sons use it. When the dictation of men so flatly opposes the express declaration of the “sure word of prophecy,” we make no apology for its utter and indignant rejection.” 

Image: Winifred Kiek in 1935. Image credit: State Library of SA