International Women’s Day: #BalanceforBetter

Posted Mar  6, 2019 in Culture

On Friday, 8 March, we celebrate International Women’s Day. The theme promoted worldwide for events, campaigns and initiatives happening on this day is #BalanceforBetter. It is a call to action for driving gender balance across the world. What does that mean for us as church?

From its inception in 1977 the Uniting Church has accepted and ordained women into the ministry of the Word and to the ministry of deaconess. (See Agreed Statement on the Ministry). The reasoning can be found, among others, mostly in Scripture:

1. a) Jesus’ attitude to women. His valuation of women is regarded as exceeding normal Jewish boundaries of the time, and opening the way for women's fuller participation in society and in the ministry of the church.
2. b) The common salvation offered to both men and women, expressed in the baptism of all believers. This has led Uniting Christians to question the exclusion of women from the ordained ministry.
3. c) The existence in the New Testament of a wide variety of ministries exercised by women: deacons, prophets, expounding the Gospel; and oversight in some sense of house churches.
4. d) The actual experience of churches in history as well as in our own time and culture who have recognised and received the ministry of ordained women.

Just by looking at our current leadership profile, it is clear that the Uniting Church in Australia is doing quite a lot to promote gender equality. Dr Deidre Palmer is our president; Colleen Geyer is General Secretary of the Assembly; Dr Sureka Goringe leads UnitingWorld; here in South Australia we have a female Moderator in Rev Sue Ellis, a newly appointed female Associate General Secretary, Rev Sue Page and a new General Secretary, Rev Felicity Amery who will begin in the Synod office on 22 May. There are many more examples of female leaders in our church, including numerous ordained ministers scattered throughout our congregations.

We have initiatives such as the bi-annual UnitingWomen conference. This year, the President will lead the ‘For the Whole of Creation’ conference from 13-17 July in Fiji. UnitingWorld also has a specific campaign aimed at uplifting women’s rights in the Pacific. So why then the continued push to uplift women?

The achievements of our female leaders are many and varied; so too the passages in the Bible that acknowledge women are created in the image of God just as men are. The Uniting Church Basis of Union proclaims “(we) will seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to recognise among her members men and women called of God to preach the Gospel”. Jesus proclaimed in John 10:10 that He came so that all may have life, and have life in abundance. This does not mean that only half the population have a right to that abundant life. Yet the gender imbalance persists, both in our congregations and in other denominations.

Gender equality is a human rights issue. The Bible teaches that Christians should not discriminate based on race, gender, cultural background, or social standing (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11; James 2:1-4). And just as Aaron and Hur assisted Moses, holding up his arms when he grew too tired to do so himself so that the Israelites could defeat the Amalekites (Exodus 17:12), we as the body of Christ should support one another in practicing our gifts.

This is why women will be gathering on International Women’s Day. It is a day to support and encourage and empower one another to achieve balance in their lives so that God’s work can be fulfilled in them and through them. Women from congregations throughout South Australia will attend a retreat on Friday with #Balance as the theme, and women from the UCSA Synod, Uniting College and the Adelaide Theological Library will attend the Moderator’s Women’s breakfast on Friday too.

Gender equality is about recognising that we were ALL created in God’s image – men and women. It is about accepting that women have as many gifts to bring for the wellbeing of the church and the world as men do. It is about equality.

The Uniting Church in South Australia is blessed with many supportive and vocal advocates for gender balance. A great number of these advocates are men. On this International Women’s Day. Let’s salute all advocates of #BalanceforBetter.

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