SWITZERLAND ADMITS WOMEN TO MINISTRY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 265, 3 August 1921, Page 5

SWITZERLAND ADMITS WOMEN TO MINISTRY

The important question of women in the religious ministry in Switzerland has been settled at Zurich, where the synod of the Reformed Church has decided bv 78 votes to 57 in favour of their admission, says the "Christian Science Monitor.” The authorisation to act in this capacity, however, is restricted to unmarried women, and in case of marriage they are required to resign. All the old arguments against woman preachers were adduced that their domain was the education of children and not of grown-ups, and that their mode of thought was not sufficiently objective; but these did not carry the day. The first Swiss woman to hold a. pastorate officially will bo Miss Pfister. Miss Pfister was a private teacher at Zurich for six and a half years, but (gave up teaching to study theology. Another Swiss woman preacher is Miss RGutknecht, who passed her examination in theology about four years ago. Through the influence of a prominent member of the church council she received consecration in October, 1918, and since then has preached in numerous places in eastern Switzerland. Tho entry of women into tho Christian ministry is only just coming about in Europe. In Germany women are acting in a limited capacity as assistant preachers at Heidelberg and Fribourg-in-Bresgau. and in France the National Synod of Reformed Churches meeting at Nimes in June last, created the post of "deaconess evangelist," whose activities comprise charitable and social work of every kind, visiting the needy—particularly women—giving religious instruction to children, but only exceptionally conducting religious services. In Switzerland the movement is likely to take considerable extension. The question of the pastorate has been discussed in the Grisons for a number of years, and at Basle tho rules are boing altered to admit of the admission of women to the examination for assistant pastors. At Geneva, young women feeling a vocation in the Church are able to obtain a certificate for Biblical studies nt the university the same as men students. About a year ago Miss Maude Royden, of London, preached in Geneva Cathedral on the occasion of the opening of the Women’s International Congress, this boing the first time a woman had ever occupied Calvin’s pulpit.