Women Hold up Half the Sky
I only realized that this is a quote from Mao
Zedong when Pastor Rebekah Liu from China was the speaker at an Adventist Today Sabbath seminar on
October 9, 2021. The young, sympathetic, and enthusiastic ordained pastor spoke
about the history and current status of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in
China. In China, when all the churches that worship on Sunday were merged by
the state into the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the Adventists remained
independent because of the Sabbath, but the ties with the world church (General
Conference) were cut. Thus, they also remained independent as far as church
governance was concerned. This contributed to their ordaining men and women to
the pastorate without distinction.
In China, the church was the first to liberate
women. Women were subject to the father, their feet were bound, limiting their
mobility, and they were also subjected to their husbands in marriage. The three
focal points of women's emancipation in China consisted of the liberation of
the mind, feet, and the restrictions of marriage. The church focused on
education in this regard and established schools for girls. "The Christian
Church women‘s schools produced the
earliest intellectual and professional women in China, who were the pioneers of
the women's liberation movement in China."[1]
Considering that Mao Zedong recognized that women hold
up half of heaven, it is also clear why he did not want to leave out half of
the population. The goals for women in Communist China (from 1949 are to
provide jobs for women, education for women, and marriage freedom for women.
Thus, women in China can live self-determined lives.
In the church, women also hold up half of heaven,
if not more. Pastor Liu explained that the strong growth in the Chinese church was
due to persecution, but also to the influence of women pastors who are in
charge of the churches and their members. Women appeal to people differently
than men. Currently, there are about 26 ordained female pastors in the Chinese
Seventh-day Adventist Church, and they are happy that the controversy over
women's ordination in the world church does not affect them and they can do
their work regardless.
In an interview broadcast on Vatican Radio in
September 2021, Cardinal Walter Kasper said "Women will play greater
roles" in the church of the future. "We've overslept that a bit, I
would think," he said. To be sure, the Catholic Church has worked for
women's dignity and equal rights in many countries with patriarchal cultures,
Kasper said. "But within the church, we've been very tardy on that, and
now we're catching up a little bit on the fast track, but that kind of thing
doesn't happen overnight." For the church, a stronger role for women is
extremely important: "You can't just exclude half of humanity! Women have
a great contribution to make there; they see many things differently and tackle
many things differently than we men do, and that can then complement each
other." [2] However, the German cardinal does not
consider the topic of women's ordination to be ripe yet because it can only be
decided universally by the church.
At about the same time, the President of the
Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) Thomas Sternberg told
Redaktionsnetzwerk, "At the same time, the debate must continue about
which theological arguments still carry in 2021 that continue to exclude women
from ordination." Sternberg called it a sign pointing to the future that
the bishops' conference will meet for the first time in the fall of 2021 under the
leadership of the new secretary-general, Beate Gilles. "It is a very good
and important signal that for the first time a woman has filled and will fill
this key position within the German Bishops' Conference," the Sternberg
said. [3]
The church needs renewal. If it were not so
difficult to overrule a statement by a previous pope, the Catholic Church would
probably even now open the way to ordination for women. But the Church has
maneuvered itself into an impasse from which it cannot easily get out.
In the SDA no statement or decision would prohibit
the ordination of women. On the contrary - in 1881, at the General Conference
session, it was expressed that there is nothing that would speak against it.
That the church is still discussing this today is unnecessary and perhaps the
reasons why it is still an issue today should be explored. Many commissions and
study groups have looked at the issue from all sides. They have found that
neither the Bible nor Ellen White's statements give a clear answer. It remains
a decision of the working policy. Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change
if you want to see it in the world.“ Policies can be changed. Period. And yet
we are just about to maneuver ourselves into an impasse as well.
Sister Anne Béatrice Faye, a nun from Burkina
Faso, is a philosopher and member of the theological commission at the Synod of
Bishops of the Catholic Church. She says, "It's women who carry the church
in Africa... I think it's natural today to recognize women's participation at
the level of decision-making bodies within the church." Sr. Anne Béatrice, therefore, envisions for
the future that women in the Church would be supported not only with "nice
words."[4]
No matter in which church, it is usually the women
who hold up not only the sky but also the church. They need more than nice
words to acknowledge their commitment.
Photo: Ellen Bisinger
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