WOMEN IN MINISTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 11

WOMEN IN MINISTRY

A DEFINITE PLACE

REV. DOROTHY WILSON'S

VIEWS

' The opinion that'there was a definite place for women in the Christian ministry was expressed by the Eev. Dorothy I\ Wilson, a Congregational minister from England, in the course of an addross at the weekly luncheon of the Auckland Rotary Club, states the ."New Zealand Herald." , '■

Miss Wilson said she supposed the .feelings of most of the people regarding women in the ministry were still based on the writings/ of St; Paul. In the early days of the Church women were allowed a degree of "freedom, and there was no doubt that in the first century they preached and baptised, but St. Paul's teaching and influence later forbade women to officiate .in the Church, and"they were even forbidden <to act as doorkeepers on the women's side^ of a church building.'

Asceticism developed in the growing :Church, and, although one would have expected the Reformation to alter the position, it actually became worse. Martin Luther, the great German reformer, wag quoted as saying, "A woman's place is to remain, at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children." In spite of opposition there,came two pioneers, George Fox and Wesley, and women assumed a greater place in the Church. There were now about thirty women ministers in Britain, of whom eight or nine were Congregationalijsts. Official recognition was being given to women preachers, notably Miss Maude Royden,- who had been made a Companion of Honour by his Majesty the King for her religious services in the life of the nation, and also an honorary doctor of divinity of Glasgow University.

"We must not forget that in Christ there are neither white nor black men, Jew nor ■ Gentile, slave v nor freeman, male nor female," continued Miss Wilson. '-These things do not count in the spiritual mind. • From my own experience there is a definite place for women in ,the ministry. Even in the Gospel of Christ perhaps we women see something that men do ; not. Christ never claims to see the .difference between the sexes. If God says to'us women, 'Thou sbalt,' is it for any man or any Church to say, 'Thou shalt not!*"