Women In The Church

I have had the pleasure in my short journey into ministry so far to be positively affirmed as a woman. Last year at the Woman's World Day of Prayer, two Roman Catholic nuns made a point of expressing their delight that the Church of Ireland ordained women and their regret that this avenue was not open to them. Today at the tea following the Ecumenical Harvest Service I was approached by another Roman Catholic nun who said that she would be praying for me and that she was delighted that I was approaching ordination as she felt regret that she could progress no further with her own vocation, a doctrinal glass ceiling. It is both humbling and daunting to realise that I am regarded as a representative of my gender as well as myself.

It was with this in mind that I was very disturbed to read in the Church Times over the weekend about the Curate, Rev Yvonne Hobson in Cornwall who has received another death threat in a continuing campaign against her. The postcard that the lastest threat was written on was found in a Bible in her stall in the church. She had just returned from leave of absence following a series of threats last year which included a hate letter campaign. How awful is that? A person called by God to further the work of the Kingdom threatened by backward looking individual, too cowardly to engage publicly with what they profess to believe.

I am unfamiliar with the direct challenge to my vocation on the basis of my gender but I am conscious that I do not have the acceptance I would wish from all around me. I am saddened by intolerance and have spent time this weekend thinking about my own intolerances with interesting results. It is the kind of self examination that takes a lifetime of checking into rather than a weekend. I find it hard to deal with intolerance as it speaks of feeling superior to another individual or group. What a dangerous concept. Jesus mixed with those who society dismissed, He didn't see the labels given by others, so why do we insist in doing so, and worse, applying some of our own?

Tomorrow I hope to attend a debate in Trinity College on the subject of the role of women in the church held by the Theological Society. Funny how things come together when you're are thinking about stuff.

Heavenly Father spare us from the idea that we are any better - or any more called -than anyone else. Amen