This blog is about gender issues in the church. I’m generally quite a laid-back person and do not readily get involved in movements or bandwagons; I’d rather move on and find a group of more like-minded people to do God’s work with. It’s a matter of intellectual and emotional sanity.

As far as gender equality goes, here’s what I left: women could not preach or be in the church leadership (elder board); could not teach a class where men were present; could not pray publicly; could not read the Bible aloud publicly; could not give their testimony publicly if men were present; could not serve communion; could not pass the plate; had to wear head coverings to publicly show their submission. Women cannot do only two or three activities in that list of nine in my RCA church, and those actions go against official denominational theology and practics. Do I think there’s hope for the RCA on this issue? A whole lot more than many other denominations.

Of course when people are church shopping, they’re asking, “Is this church being effective reaching people like me?” and “Can I be effective here?” And that involves much more than the gender equality issue.