Why did the testimonies weaken among orthodox and evangelical Friends?
(no login) Posted Jun 25, 2004 9:20 AM
The exchange that follows (crossposted with permission of Kent Walkemeyer and Joe Ginder from the friends theology list) raises the question of why the feminism and pacifism of earlier generations of Friends in the Orthodox stream grew weaker. As far as the weakening of the testimonies (functionally if not verbally) in the liberal stream, the classic essay by R.W. Tucker, "Revolutionary Faithfulness" (Vol. IX, No. 2, Winter 1967-68, pp 3-29) remains an important source of ideas.
Additional observations welcome!
The exchange began when a participant asked, "Do Evangelical Friend's congregations deny women who want it, the opportunity to become clergy, to preach? Can women teach adult men in Sunday School? Maybe it varies from 1 congregation to the next?"
From: Joe Ginder
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:50 AM
To: 'Friends-Theology'
Subject: RE: Questions
Here's the official statement from Evangelical Friends Church Southwest's Faith and Practice:
"We believe the Holy Spirit's calling and gifting of a person are never limited by mere human factors such as sex, ethnicity or social status, that God wants His Church to recognize, affirm, and train all whom He has called, and that we are disobedient to the Holy Spirit if we do otherwise. We want to be especially clear regarding the role of women in leadership. From our very beginnings, we have found no scriptural basis for limiting certain leadership and ministry roles to men. Today, we continue to affirm, not as a concession to modernity but in obedience to the Bible and the Holy Spirit, that the Lord is calling both women and men to serve as leaders and pastors in His church. (Acts 2:17-18;Eph 1:17; 1 Tim 2:4; 1 Cor 7:7; Eph 4:8; Gal 3:28; Rom 16:3,7)"
Within EFCSW, women serve in nearly every position of leadership of which I'm aware. I don't think we've had a yearly meeting superintendent who was a woman, but there is no restriction against it. I know of one EFCSW church that decided at one time in the past not to allow women in some positions of leadership of exactly the sort you ask about. I know of no others, and I do not know if that one church has continued with their policy. It was due primarily to their pastor at the time, who was from outside of Friends circles. He is no longer pastoring within EFCSW. Things may have changed after his departure. I don't know.
K.D. [another friends-theology participant] is correct that Friends historically do not make a distinction between laity and clergy. Regretfully, I've seen that distinction creep into practice in recent years even among EFCSW leaders, though there are still many who resist it - with good reason. But more to your question, women can be elders or pastors and women can teach adult men in Sunday School in every Friends group of which I am aware (except those who do not have pastors at all, where it is not an issue of gender) with the one exception I mentioned.
--Joe Ginder
Subject: RE: Questions
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 15:59:20 -0700
From: "Kenton Walkemeyer"
To: "Joe Ginder" "Friends-Theology"
Joe,
Though we have a pretty strong statement here in EFCSW, the percent of recorded ministers who are women has been steadily dropping since the early twentieth century. (I've been compiling statistics on this from our yearly meeting minutes.) This decline mirrors many of the other evangelical movements which began with convictions of egalitarian (Free Methodist, CMA, Brethren, Missionary, Salvation Army, Church of God, many Pentecostal groups). While these groups have seen a decline in women leaders, the mainline denominations have begun to ordain women. It's as if we're moving in opposite directions on this issue.
I'm interested in theories explaining why we have shifted.
Any ideas?
Kent Walkemeyer
From: "Joe Ginder"
To: "'Kenton Walkemeyer'" "'Friends-Theology'"
Subject: RE: Questions
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:28:11 -0700
Kent Walkemeyer writes:
> Though we have a pretty strong statement here in EFCSW, the
> percent of recorded ministers who are women has been steadily
> dropping since the early twentieth century. (I've been
> compiling statistics on this from our yearly meeting
> minutes.) This decline mirrors many of the other evangelical
> movements which began with convictions of egalitarian (Free
> Methodist, CMA, Brethren, Missionary, Salvation Army, Church
> of God, many Pentecostal groups). While these groups have
> seen a decline in women leaders, the mainline denominations
> have begun to ordain women. It's as if we're moving in
> opposite directions on this issue.
>
> I'm interested in theories explaining why we have shifted.
I wonder if it has to do with the widespread perception of the issue of women in leadership as a modernist women's liberation issue. As I recall, women's rights movements were originally Christian, with roots in the movements you mention - quite "evangelical". Sometime in the 20th century, the women's rights movement was co-opted into "women's liberation" and associated with religious and political ideology that was not compatible with the biblical Christianity of evangelicals. Perhaps biblical Christians have developed a conscious or unconscious allergy or over-reaction to this?
--Joe Ginder
Subject: RE: Questions
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 20:42:23 -0700
From: "Kenton Walkemeyer"
To: "Joe Ginder", "Friends-Theology"
I do think this is at least part of the reason. It is similar to what has happened to the peace testimony. Several of the same 'evangelical' movements began with fairly strong peace convictions -- though Friends have been one of the most outspoken groups for both peace and gender equality. As the peace issue and women's equality issue began to be associated with political agendas instead of Christian convictions, many of our more conservative movements, including evangelical Friends, lost their earlier moorings.
Kent Walkemeyer
Additional factors that were brought up later in this exchange included the eclipse of specifically Quaker discipleship concerns by exciting developments in missions and church-planting, and (in at least the case of Ohio Yearly Meeting (Damascus) - later Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region - the "hogging" of leadership in the peace committee by one person or a small group.
This page is moderated by Johan Maurer as part of the "Evangelism and the Friends Testimonies" project, supported during the academic year 2003-04 by the Ferguson Quaker Fellowship program of Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. Johan has a minute of service from Reedwood Friends Church.
