The RCA’s Inconsistency Concerning Supporting Women in Ministry
My denomination, the Reformed Church in America, permitted the ordination of women in 1979, and although over 200 women have been graduated from their seminaries since then, not many get pastorates or other Christian leadership positions. Kristine Veldheer, in “Finding Affirmation,” Church Herald, June 1989, p. 29, said the following: “The greatest frustration for me is the benign neglect I experience within the church. There appears to be a discrepancy between the theology of the RCA and its practice. Despite the fact that women are allowed to attend the seminaries, getting that first call can be problematic. Finding places to complete supervised ministry during seminary was an experience in finding churches that would consider a woman for the task. I have not experienced any intentional negligence in seminary or in being ordained to the ministry. However, I felt strongly a lack of intentional support for women which manifests itself in selling the women short to keep peace in the ranks….
“I see a future for women in the RCA that is cloudy at best. Although some of the pioneers are doing well within the RCA today, there appears to be a major storm brewing in the distance. This storm will either clear a path for women to enter the church as equal partners or will force a major change in which women will have to face the reality of looking elsewhere permanently to do ministry.”
Not much has changed in the seventeen years since she wrote that. After completing seminary training, many female RCA pastors end up serving in other denominations because their own will not have them. Even the process of applying to seminary at the classis level is problematic because their applications languish for lack of action. Having to change churches to change one’s classis is deeply disturbing and only confirms to the women that they are second class church members. Until the RCA finds a way to abolish the conscience clauses in its Book of Church Order, or some other way to effectively bring its conservative pastors in line with the church’s theology, not much is going to change either.
Thank you for publishing this piece. Indeed, in some areas there hasn’t been much change for women. The difference between opportunities for women to serve in the east verses in the midwest is quite stark. The presence of women in leadership in the east is pretty much a given, although you don’t see many women pastoring “tall steeple” churches. We’re mainly in small urban or rural churches. Thank you again for talking about this important issue.
You can do as I did within the RCA and accidently state that the clause had been removed only to find out later that it had not. There are people that are struggling within the walls of the church that you are fighitng to enter into. Please do not leave the denomination. The challenge that I faced within seminary was the females that felt it was their duty to be pastors but had no calling. The same applies to the men as well. I studied with some of the best pastors who are also women. I also studied with some individuals that were walking across the bridge because they had an agenda to push rather then pursuing Christ’s calling. Unfortunately individuals who are pushing their own agenda rather than God’s do a great diservice for everyone involved, but it sounds like it has negatively impacted you and I am greatly sorry for that. I pray that we may serve within this denomination together to see Christ glorified and help to advance His Kingdom coming here on earth as it is in Heaven. Please do not give up hope.
Actually, I’m not as dim on the RCA as you might think. It is always a challenge for Christians to decide what to do when their own theology and/or ways of approaching the Christian life has moved on from their mother church or mother denomination. Do you wait around and fight issues that you’ve already long ago solved in your own mind (obviously a negative and draining process), or do you leave and therefore be freed up to engage in more positive kingdom-building activities, pulling together with others in a mission that one believes in. The RCA is the denomination that I ended up in, not the one I left.
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.