March 17, 2005
Eastertide
The canonical Gospels are all in agreement. Women were the first
witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. While the male disciples
of the Crucified One were still in hiding in Jerusalem, women
went to the tomb to embalm the body. They were sent forth from
the empty tomb to tell of the good news of Christ’s victory
over death.
According to Jewish law at the time of Jesus, women had the same
legal status as children and slaves. They were generally not allowed
to provide testimony in court, as their words were not considered
trustworthy. Yet God chose those marginalized by society to witness
to Christ.
Each Gospel account offers a different list of women who went
to the tomb. Only Mary Magdalene appears in all four Gospels.
Yet how quickly her witness was forgotten. She is not even mentioned
in the Acts of the Apostles. When Paul, in I Cor. 5: 5-7, lists
the people to whom the resurrected Christ appeared, he doesn’t
mention any women, not even Mary Magdalene.
After Jesus’ death, the movement he started became institutionalized
as the church. With increasing institutionalization, the church
conformed more and more to the society around it. As the society
severely limited women’s leadership roles in the public
sphere, the church did the same. Those to whom Christ had entrusted
the good news of the resurrection were silenced.
As the result of long years of struggle and patient preparation,
the silence has been broken. Women have moved into positions of
leadership in the churches. Over the next year, the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) will be celebrating a series of important anniversaries.
Women were first ordained as deacons in 1906, as elders in 1930
and as ministers of word and sacrament in 1956.
Women here in Guatemala are celebrating as well, though the struggle
here is far from over. The Synod of the National Evangelical Presbyterian
Church of Guatemala, the church’s highest body, approved
the ordination of women in 1997. Subsequently, the presbyteries,
with one exception, gave their approval in 1998.
When I arrived in Guatemala in 2000, I was asked to join the
Presbytery of Occidente. Shortly after I joined the presbytery,
more than thirty congregations that had split from the national
church in 1992 came back into the presbytery. Many of the people
in these churches don’t know that they are now part of a
national church that affirms the ordination of women. Many of
the pastors who came back are also very much opposed to women’s
ordination.
Occasionally this has put me in a very awkward position. When
I visit in the churches, women often ask me if women can be ordained
as elders and pastors. I tell them yes and I share that I am an
ordained pastor. Yet their pastors tell them that women can’t
be ordained. At times I’ve wondered if my presence as an
ordained pastor from outside the country is helping or hurting
the cause of women’s leadership in the church here.
In March, people from several presbyteries in the United States
traveled to Guatemala to meet with representatives from the presbyteries
here with which they have partnerships. The meeting provided a
space for evaluating the ways in which these presbytery partnerships
have benefited people in both churches. Several groups mentioned
that one of the gifts to the Guatemalan church has been greater
openness to women’s leadership. Through presbytery partnerships,
leaders in the Guatemala church have had the opportunity to see
how presbyteries in the United States operate with the full participation
of women pastors and elders.
Progress is being made here in the Presbytery of Occidente. When
the congregation of Jehovah Jireh Presbyterian Church in Quetzaltenango
first considered ordaining a woman elder several months ago, the
congregation voted against it. Even though this congregation had
stayed with the national church, one family in the congregation
strongly opposes women’s ordination. The pastor and congregation
then embarked on a study spanning several months of women’s
roles in Scripture. During this time the church received a visit
from two women pastors and a woman elder from Central Washington
Presbytery, who were in Guatemala on a visit facilitated by CEDEPCA. |
