Women, Priests and the Anglican Church in Southern Africa: Reformation of Holy Hierarchies
Women, Priests and the Anglican Church in Southern Africa: Reformation of Holy Hierarchies
Miranda N. Pillay 0
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Women, Priests and the Anglican Church in Southern Africa:
Reformation of Holy Hierarchies
Introductory Remarks
We trust it will give women new possibilities of leadership in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (Cape Times: 1992).
Tanniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood in 2017. The quotation
he Anglican Church in Southern Africa (ACSA)2 is celebrating the twenty-fifth
above is a statement made by the South African Council of Churches following the
announcement that the Anglican Church in Southern Africa voted in favour of the
ordination of women at the
church’s September, 1992
Provincial Synod.3 This was a
newsworthy event given the currents of change and rhetoric of freedom in apartheid
South Africa.4 Under the heading “Women priests for SA” the Cape Times (August 15,
1992:2) reports that seventy-nine percent voted in favour of the ordination of women.
This result complied with the two-thirds majority required on an issue declared
“controversial.”5
The controversial issue was (and remains?) undergirded by the gender of clergy
justified (explicitly or implicitly) by the gender of God.6 For example, in an article Hear
God calling women by Revd Mike Mc Coy it is clear that those who are against women in
the priesthood believe that “male character as distinct from female character is
necessary” for priesthood.7 This theology of exclusion appears to have been justified by
the ways men in authority use the Christian Bible. Bishop Thomas is quoted to have said,
“no part of the New Testament testifies that a woman could be, in a public and authorised
1 Miranda N. Pillay is senior lecturer in New Testament Studies and Ethics at the University of the
Western Cape.
2 The organization itself dates back to the English Reformation and the estrangement of Henry VIII from
the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Following the missionary movements during the British
occupation of the Cape (South Africa) the Anglican Church in South Africa was officially founded in 1847,
with the arrival of Bishop Robert Gray. Later, with the inclusion of Mozambique, Namibia and St Helena it
was named Church of the Province of Southern Africa – C.P.S.A (
Archibald, 1996
. “Inventory for AB2546”
www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventory/collections. The name was changed to Anglican Church in
Southern Africa (ACSA) at the Southern African Provincial Synod held 8-9 September 2006. Today ACSA
comprises six countries and two islands, viz. South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola,
Mozambique and the islands of Tristan of Dagama and St Helena
(Bompani 2017: 130-131)
.
3 For a historical overview of the “movement for the ordination of women” in the Anglican Church, see
Swart-Russell and Draper (1991)
.
4 The decision to open the office of priesthood to women occurred during the four-year period between
the release of Nelson Mandela (11 February, 1990) and South Africa’s first democratic election on 27
April, 1994 –a time of transition and intense negotiation. See
http://www.sahistory.org.za/datedevent/nelson-mandela-freed.
5 By this time, this ‘controversial issue’ had been discussed by the church since 1970 after the appearance
of a report on the ‘Ministry of Women’ presented by a commission appointed by the Archbishop
(SwartRussell and Draper (1991:222).
6 Gender in its broader socially-constructed sense, but particularly the bodylines (and sexuality) of
women as it relates to the maleness of Jesus.
7 The article appeared in the Church’s official Report on Synod proceedings on 14 August 1992.
way, the representative of Christ.”8 This understanding was echoed by Mr. David Mokobe,
a lay representative from Bloemfontein who says that, “If God meant women to be priests
he would have done so from the beginning. Men must be a symbol of Christ at the
eucharist.” However, while these voices sounded warnings of the “impending doom
which would befall the Church of God,”9 other voices were also heard.
Voices of inclusion.
A lay representative from Swaziland, Mrs Maureen Jonga said, “God did not
discriminate between male and female” and that the Anglicans should put their house in
order because the Anglican Church had always been respected for its stand against
injustice and discrimination.10 Bishop John Ruston from St Helena admitted that, even
though he had theological reservations about the ordination of women he “could not
ignore the claims of many women to have a calling to the priesthood. The Revd Roy
Snyman from Port Elizabeth believed the ordination of women to be an issue of vocation
and not and not an issue of liberation. I don’t agree with the view that these two issue (...truncated)