A Win for women ministers

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28 June 2010
A Win for Women's Ordination
By Keith Lockhart
in GC2010 General Conference Session

The main topic up for debate this morning was the ordination of deaconesses. The issue of the ordination of female pastors having been kept off the conference agenda, this discussion was designed to provide a less controversial way of advancing women in the church.

The delegates took full advantage, approving changes to the Church Manual that went farther than the platform expected. At issue was a proposed new section of the manual that gave divisions the option of ordaining deaconesses if they wished.
But that proposal was rejected and instead delegates voted for amended wording that simply said that when local church officers are elected a “service should take place for ordination for deacons and deaconesses.”

Speaking to SPECTRUM, today's chairman of the General Conference Session floor Vice President Lowell Cooper said that the delegates voted effectively to regularize the ordination of deaconesses worldwide, which was more radical than anticipated. “They went further than was recommended in the original motion and I did find that surprising,” he said.

As might be expected, the debate on the floor ranged far and wide, with many suggesting that the measure was a slippery slope toward the ordination of women ministers. But on this occasion the fearful argument for the extreme failed to gain traction. The delegates were intent on going as far as they could today.
The applause on the floor when the amended motion was won was the loudest thus far at the General Conference Session. It gave a sense that the leadership could win the vote for women’s ordination if they really wanted.

Comment:
Why does anyone need ordaining? Are you against this pastor in China (see today's Spectrum news of G.C.) who pastors the largest SDA church in the world and she and her fellow female pastors have been ordained. Ordination means a different status, extra pay and allowances: IOW, equal pay=equal work. Are you against women receiving equal pay and recognition for equal work?

If you check the minutes and news of over 100 years of the General Conference in session you will see that in 188l women's ordination was voted. What has happened in the ensuing 100+ years? This was before any "feminist movement."

If God created man and woman equal, and Paul declares the same, what man do you wish to submit to in your spiritual discernment? We are equal and responsible before God. We can ride no man's coattails into the kingdom.