Regardless of gender or religion, ministry is as individual as fingerprints. The way women minister to congregants will always differ to how a man would do it, as ministry inevitably varies from person to person.
Women’s ordination has made a mark in a number of faiths and the stories of women’s experiences are telling. For some faiths, the ordination of women is relatively new. For others, it’s the norm. Certainly the experience for women in this type of leadership can be difficult. However as some women attest, it can also be liberating.
The Uniting Church in Australia has ordained women since its formation in 1977. The Salvation Army has always had women in its ranks. When Anglican church law changed in 1992, women were ordained to the priesthood in dioceses that agreed with ordination, but it’s likely to be some time before Australian Anglican law changes, enabling women to become bishops. The Jewish faith is also divided on the issue: Progressive Judaism allows female ordination while Orthodox Judaism strongly opposes the practice. The stories of women from these faiths are challenging, spirited and give a new dimension to ministry.
Rev Maree Armstrong
While studying to become an Anglican priest, Maree—a mother of three—found herself working through the basic issues. She attended a theological college that only had men’s toilets.
‘There was one other woman who studied with me, we used to take turns standing toilet guard’, she says.
Or there were times when praying in church with the other male students was excruciating. ‘They went on for so long sometimes I’d be thinking: “Come on, I’ve got washing to get off the line”,’ she says, laughing.
While funny, such situations only hint at the political issues women face in ministry. When Maree began in ministry, there was no female model to follow. She felt she had to work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and still works up to 80 hours a week. ‘The one time I took a day off because I’d been ill’, she says, ‘someone had the gall to ask: “Is it a bit much for you dear?” I was very hurt’.
Maree, now 50, was in the first group of Anglican women to be ordained to priesthood in NSW in 1992. Initially she tried to be demure and dressed conservatively, otherwise no one believed she was a priest. But one day she thought, ‘blow, I’m just going to