Celebrating the Challenge
By | Dec 16, 2006
Women in church ministry in Oceania will always be placed in an unequal relationship.    But never at any time in the history of the Christian faith in Oceania has it been as urgent as today that women must no longer be second-class citizens in the church.
I am a woman, a Christian and a priest – a Christian priest in God’s church. I say priest last, because it is important but not more important than my faith as a Christian or my womanhood. It is my Christian faith and my womanhood that gives life to and enhances my priesthood.
Becoming a priest was not an easy journey. Within my own church community and amongst people with whom I had shared the Lord’s Supper many times, I found opposition, hostility and even harassment – leveled firstly at me and then at my husband. Many theologies were used to support arguments against my being admitted into holy orders. It was not traditional – women would disturb the norm of our society and community – women were a source of temptation and disturbance and must be kept out of ‘holy places’. But underneath all these I glimpsed that it was mainly an issue about sexuality and power.
After twelve years of praying about “God’s call†which kept on appearing in my life throughout that time through different avenues I applied for entry into the ordained ministry in 1998. In 1999 I was advised that I was accepted for this and was given a scholarship to pursue a degree in theology at the University of Auckland, prior to ordination. When I arrived in New Zealand in January 2000, they didn’t know what to do with me because all those from Polynesia who were recipients before me were of the ‘ordained male kind.’ The message was loud and clear: what were they to do with a woman and a layperson at that. But thanks be to God who uses people both within and outside the church I was able to enroll at Auckland University in 2001 after graduating with a Diploma in Biblical Studies from the Bible College of New Zealand. I returned with my husband to Fiji in December 2003 with a diploma and a degree in theology majoring in biblical studies- a first for both men and women in the Anglican Church in Polynesia.
My journey into the ordained ministry was made possible because within the church are women and men of great wisdom and vision. For them the role of men and women in church ministry is complementary. Both need each other if the church is to be relevant to the reality that’s present in our communities, worldwide.
I salute that vision because before you today stands the first woman Principal of St. John the Baptist Theological College. Before you today stands the first woman Vicar General of the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia.
Each day in my ministry is a challenge but within those challenges lie wonderful possibilities and opportunities. My people are always searching for new ways to experience God in their lives. For too long they have been hearing only one side of the story – the male packaged, male dominated one. They now need to hear other side of the same story to enable them to better discern God’s purpose for their lives better.
The Christian church emerged out of the Resurrection – it is a living faith because Jesus is alive. In John’s Gospel Chapter 12 verse 11 on Easter morning Mary stood weeping outside the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid. The risen Jesus without revealing his identity said to her, “Woman why are you weeping?â€Â She was the first person to see the risen Christ. She was told, “Go and share the good news to your brothers, that I am alive.â€Â Jesus didn’t say, “Go and bring your brothers, to carry the good news.â€Â Jesus used a woman to reveal the good news to the world.
Across Oceania at this time women are still weeping and will continue to do so until they are given their rightful places in the church. For too long we have used our culture as an excuse not to see God’s vision for us. Now we need to use our culture to teach us to respect God’s law of love – that all are equal in God’s sight. To church leaders we say, like men, women are created in God’s image – all we are seeking is space within the church where that promise can be fully lived as a reality.
My story is no different to that of my sisters who have walked this same road. If you listen carefully you will hear that these are stories from the edge, speaking about life at the edge.
Women of God, take your rightful place in God’s kingdom; but whatever we do must be done in love and God must continue to be the focus.
What can we do to bring the owners of those voices away from the edge?
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“Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets.” Num. 11:29
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