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Study guide


Women: Then and now A


gainst the backdrop of historical events, including the Reformation, the struggle for women’s rights and equality has endured. There has been notable recent


progress in developing nations, but violence, injustice and oppression still mar the lives of many of the world’s women. As Christians, we can and should speak up.


Exercise 1: Gospel women In a time and culture that set strict barriers between the


sexes and tended to see women as inferior to men, Jesus had important interactions and friendships with many females, including Mary Magdalene; Mary of Bethany; Martha, the Syrophoenician; the woman at the well; the woman who anoints him; and the woman caught in adultery. In these encounters, Jesus often crossed boundaries to engage, defend and affirm women. Discuss: • Which of these encounters or friendships has the most meaning for you? Why?


• How is Jesus’ behavior different from how women have been treated across history (or now in much of the world)?


• What does Jesus’ behavior reveal about God’s regard for women?


Exercise 2: Paul and women In his letters, Paul commends many women, including


Priscilla, Julia, Phoebe (whom he calls a deacon), Chloe and Junia (whom he calls an apostle). Paul also says that in Christ there is no male or female (Galatians 3:28). What do these things imply about Paul’s opinion on the status of women? About the role of women in the earliest church? But Paul also advises women to be silent in church (1 Cor-


inthians 14:34) and to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24). What could explain this tension about the role of women? If the earliest church introduced an elevated view of women that was counter to culture, which view has domi- nated in Christianity for much of the last two millennia? Why?


Exercise 3: Modern women Compared to when our grandmothers were girls, how are


things different for women? What has changed in such areas as social status, opportunity, independence, authority, voca- tion, self-directedness, economics and education? What’s


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By Robert C. Blezard


been the biggest change? What accounts for these changes? How has our society benefited as a result?


Exercise 4: Women voters In 1920 the 19th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote


for all women in the U.S. Across the globe, complete women’s suffrage was mostly a 20th-century phenomenon. Consider that South Africa enfranchised all women (not just white) in 1994. Other dates are: Australia, 1902; Germany, 1918; United Kingdom, 1928; Italy, 1945; China, 1947; India, 1947; Swit- zerland, 1971. What does it mean for a culture when women can fully vote? What does it mean for women? Why did it take until the 20th century for women’s suffrage to go global?


Exercise 5: Women pastors Women have always served an important role in church


and faith but only very recently as pastors. Women’s ordina- tion is still controversial, even among many Protestants. The ELCA began ordaining women in 1970, but the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, among other Lutheran denominations, do not. Today women make up about a quarter of all ELCA pas- tors, and in 2013 Elizabeth A. Eaton was elected as the first woman to hold the ELCA’s highest office, presiding bishop. • What does it say about the ELCA that women hold pas- toral office and a woman has the highest office in the denomination?


• What strengths and gifts do women bring to ordained ministry?


• Why are the voices of women leaders important? • Why are women pastors (and bishops and lay rostered leaders) important role models for young men and women?


• Half of all current ELCA seminarians are women, which means that over time the percentage of women clergy (now at 25 percent) will only r i s e . What changes can you envision will take place in the church as numbers of women clergy grow and equal male clergy? 


Author bio: Blezard is an assistant to the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did


subsequent study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.


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