Susan Skillen ⎮  Spring 2012

The subject of the ordination of women in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) can be an uncomfortable topic for discussion.  The ACNA from its inception has brought together Anglicans from several theological streams, particularly Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic. Within and among those streams are differing views concerning the ordination of women. In the interests of strengthening what unites us in the ACNA, the topic of women’s ordination has sometimes been viewed as a secondary issue. Its potential for divisiveness has meant that it is often overlooked as a key issue that it truly is—particularly for ordained women in the ACNA of whom there are over 200.

In the interests of offering material for discussion but not divisive argument, presented here is a review of two recent books on the role of women in the church. The first is Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters, by Philip B. Payne (Zondervan, 2009).  Coming from an Evangelical perspective (he has taught New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell, Bethel and Fuller), Payne meticulously exegetes Paul’s writings to reveal a consistent theology and practice that includes women as equal partners with men in all levels of church leadership. The second book is The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West, by Gary Macy (Oxford University Press, 2008).  Gary Macy is Roman Catholic and Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University.  His careful and scholarly review of historical evidence reveals the astonishing fact that the Church ordained women for the first twelve hundred years of its history.  Although neither author is Anglican, they speak to the concerns of the Evangelical stream—“Is it biblical?”—and the Anglo-Catholic stream—“Is it part of Church tradition?”

Philip Payne’s exegetical study addresses verse by verse all of the difficult passages in Paul’s writing concerning the role of women in the church. However, he takes time at the outset to look at the background to Paul’s teaching, his training, and particularly the Genesis 1-3 accounts of the creation and fall of humanity to which Paul refers. For example, he does a Hebrew and Greek word study of “helper” in verse 2:18: “I will make a helper suitable for him.” While the word “helper” in English usually signifies a lesser person such as an aide or servant, in the original text the word always signifies an equal or superior. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the word is used in reference to God as “‘help, savior, rescuer, protector’ as in ‘God is our help’” (44). Identifying eleven allegations that in the creation story God puts man in authority over the woman, Payne carefully reveals the exegetical flaws in each allegation.  In actuality, Payne concludes, “Genesis 1-3 consistently depicts man and woman as equal partners, not woman under man” (52).

I Corinthians 11:2-16 is another difficult and controversial passage. For example, verse three has long been understood to teach that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of every man, meaning that the husband is in authority over the wife. Payne gives abundant evidence, however, that the original significance of the Greek word for “head” (kephaly) is “source” and not “authority.” Giving over 100 pages of meticulous scrutiny to this passage, Payne concludes, “As Paul stresses in the climax of this passage, believers must affirm the equal rights and privileges of women and men in the Lord…. Since in the Lord woman and man are not separate, women who are gifted and called by God ought to be welcomed into ministry, just as men are” (215). With a constant attention to detail, Payne reviews other passages from I Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, I Timothy and Titus.

Most pertinent to the topic of women’s ordination is his treatment of I Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9 where Paul gives instructions concerning church leadership. Payne addresses the question of whether or not Paul allows women to be overseers and deacons.  He points out that although this is not clear in English translations, nowhere in either passage is a masculine pronoun used in Paul’s instructions on the offices of deacon and overseer (447).  Payne also produces an interesting table of Greek words in the two passages that show the terminology about women in I Timothy is identically reproduced in Titus. Payne’s exegesis draws the conclusion that “Paul specifically includes women in the church office of deacon (I Tim. 3:11). Similarly, he states that ‘anyone desiring the office of overseer desires a good work’ in 3:1 and 5. The subject for those meeting the qualifications of elder and overseer according to Titus 1:6 is ‘anyone,’ which implies the eligibility of women to be overseers” (459).

Gary Macy’s book picks up the evidence for women’s ordination in the medieval period of the church. He argues his case specifically to his own Roman Catholic audience, but he has much to say to Anglicans as well. A medieval church historian, Macy himself was quite convinced that women had never been ordained in that period, when his own findings began to cast doubt on that conviction. A turning point came in 1997 when it became apparent to him that there might in fact be evidence for ordained women in the medieval period. He writes, “As so often happens in scholarship, one small clue led to another and yet another. Slowly, a pattern emerged. There was no shortage of evidence about ordained women…” (4). Macy’s study presents the sources that survive, current scholarship available, and he also shows how the evidence for women’s ordination was deliberately hidden from view beginning in the twelfth century.

Macy’s research reveals that the understanding of ordination was quite different in the earliest centuries from what it is today. Then, a person was ordained to a particular ministry in a particular community. Macy leads the reader on a fascinating journey through the Middle Ages, uncovering five references to women bishops, episcopae, who administered church property.  There are also five tomb inscriptions of specific women who were presbyterae, one of which makes reference to her celebrating the Eucharist. There is also evidence that abbesses held the same powers and responsibilities as bishops, and nuns were included in lists of clergy.

By the twelfth century, however, a “seismic shift in Christianity” (89) took place as the definition of the orders was narrowed, and “a theology was developing that would completely remove women from any ordained ministry” (92).  Particularly fascinating is the ardent defense of women deaconesses by scholastic philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard who passionately argued throughout his sermons and commentaries against the reinterpretation of Paul’s letters to exclude women.  Nor was he alone in his defense of women in ordained ministry, but was in the company of many other theologians of his time, all of whom recalled the earlier writings of Origen, Claudius and Cassiodorus who also interpreted Paul as including women in ordained ministry.

Macy makes reference to historical events and movements of the twelfth century figuring prominently in the gradual effort to exclude women from ordained ministry and erase the memory of their earlier ministry from Church canons. These include the Investiture Controversy, an end to married clergy, the increase of clericalism in the Church, and an intensifying of misogynist ideas. Macy concludes, “In a mere one hundred years…teaching on the ordination of women had been dramatically transformed… from conceding that women were once ordained, to teaching that women never were ordained, to teaching, finally, that women never could and never would be ordained. This final position is what canon law students would be taught for the rest of the Middle Ages” (100).

Payne and Macy offer two highly scholarly studies on the role of women in the early church and the Middle Ages. Both agree that the evidence for women in ordained ministry is undeniable. They also agree that the correct understanding of Paul’s teaching was gradually undermined and falsely reinterpreted to exclude women. Together the books offer great insight and persuasive argument for the biblical and historical evidence in support of women’s ordination.