{"id":651,"date":"2013-06-12T23:30:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T23:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/?p=651"},"modified":"2013-06-05T10:57:03","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T10:57:03","slug":"unwritten-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2013\/06\/12\/unwritten-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwritten laws&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Evangelical Covenant Church has affirmed women for ordination and leadership in the church since 1976. So part of me asks why do we even need a Commission for Biblical Gender Equality any more? Yet as I speak with colleagues in ministry and hear some of the rhetoric that continues in the wider evangelical church, I realize that there continues to be barriers to women in ministry in many places &#8211; even in our denomination.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those barriers appear to come from unwritten laws or things better left unsaid. An example: many churches follow the <a title=\"Lectionary\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">lectionary<\/a>, a three-year cycle of Scripture readings which can be used to provide a wide overview of the Biblical narrative, such that over the three years, congregations and preachers work through a broad base of both the Old and New Testaments and their teachings. While this means that we are exposed to a wide range of texts, there are some things left unsaid: in particular, those more difficult texts (thanks, Paul!) about the roles of men and women in the church.<\/p>\n<p>The unspoken message for me is that some texts are simply too hard &#8211; so let&#8217;s ignore them and not get in a fight about it! Yet I find myself asking whether that&#8217;s healthy. Shouldn&#8217;t we go to the hard texts and ask the questions? Shouldn&#8217;t we read the texts together, seeking understanding and empowering God&#8217;s people for ministry? As we journey together through God&#8217;s word, we learn to love God and each other more, despite differences. So let&#8217;s take those passages on women in ministry that we might prefer to ignore (I know I sometimes do) and do the hard work of theology &#8211; of really seeking to consider the teaching, and its relevance for our church today. Only if we address the texts &#8211; to go through them rather than around them &#8211; will we move on from the unspoken rules and the unasked or unanswered questions that lead to unseen barriers to women in senior leadership in our churches and congregations.<\/p>\n<p>Blog contribution by A Hague.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=651&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Evangelical Covenant Church has affirmed women for ordination and leadership in the church since 1976. So part of me asks why do we even need a Commission for Biblical Gender Equality any more? Yet as I speak with colleagues in ministry and hear some of the rhetoric that continues in the wider evangelical church, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testimoies-and-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unwritten laws... - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2013\/06\/12\/unwritten-laws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unwritten laws... - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Evangelical Covenant Church has affirmed women for ordination and leadership in the church since 1976. 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