Why can't a woman who feels a call to ministry be ordained?
God calls every believer--whether young or old, male or female--to participate and serve within His church. Scripture includes many stories of God placing women in positions of great authority and responsibility. Think, for instance, of the prophetesses named in the Old Testament: Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4-16), and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20).
In the New Testament we have examples of women playing significant roles within the newly forming Christian community. Following His resurrection, Jesus chose to appear first to three women, and He gave them the responsibility of sharing this wonderful news with His grieving disciples. (Luke 24:3-10) Later, Paul refers to a woman as a "deacon" of the church in Cenchrea (Rom 16:1).
The extraordinary example of Ellen White’s ministry in the early years of the Adventist Church provides us with yet another example a woman entrusted by God with an important responsibility.
While there is no question about the value of the contribution of women, the issue of women and ordination is more complex. For Seventh-day Adventists, ordination to the gospel ministry means ordination to serve the entire world church anywhere the minister is called. Within many countries and cultures, women are excluded from exercising leadership, whether political, religious, or social.
The Adventist Church has placed a high value on unity and worldwide consensus on this issue, and at the 1990 General Conference in Session it voted that women would not be ordained to the gospel ministry in our denomination. The issue was revisited at the 1995 General Conference session and this approach was confirmed. Again, it was a matter of the global Adventist Church saying, in the interest of unity, "No--at least not now."
Dr. Angel Rodriquez, director of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference, writes that “the question of women's ordination is one the church is still discussing and only the work of the Spirit within the church could lead us to some consensus on that most difficult issue.” (Angel Manuel Rodríguez, Women’s Ministries and the Bible, Biblical Research Institute, June 2003.)
Why do some Adventist churches ordain female pastors?
In the few instances where this has happened, both the female pastors and the individual congregations have understood in advance that this is an ordination only for their local area and not ordination to the gospel ministry for the worldwide church organization. The more usual office to which both men and women have been ordained is that of "local church elder."
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a worldwide community that embraces hundreds of different cultures, languages and ethnicities. In fact, the Adventist Church is one of the few Protestant organizations with a truly global structure. Many other denominations operate on a congregational basis, perhaps organized under a regional or national conference that provides only limited financial, doctrinal or organizational direction.
One practical advantage of this unified structure is that the Adventist Church is able to make better use of its resources; it can support a worldwide health, education and mission work that would be otherwise impossible. Our church places a high value on unity; we are a worldwide movement, bound together by our common beliefs, our shared mission, and our assurance in the soon return of our Lord.
It follows, then, that for Seventh-day Adventists, ordination to the gospel ministry means ordination to serve the entire world church anywhere the minister is called. For this reason, the church has sought worldwide consensus on the matter of women’s ordination. By vote of the General Conference in Session (1995), the Seventh-day Adventist Church determined that on this particular issue, there should be a global approach and that each division of the church structure would not be permitted to follow its own plan. In the interest of unity, the church said, “No--at least not now.”
If you want to take an in depth look at all that Paul is saying in 1 Timothy 2:12 it may be worth getting hold of a good commentary study. But let me just touch on some main points. First, the text clearly does not mean that women are forbidden to preach or teach, because we have examples to the contrary from Jesus, Himself, and from the early Christian church as well as our own church history. The situation that is being described by Paul is of behavior within a specific cultural context. In that culture, a woman speaking publicly in a worship setting would cause disgrace within the church, and cause others in the general community to view the church as scandalous.
Let’s look at some examples of women who have been entrusted by God to deliver spiritual messages to their faith communities.
The first public evangelist was the Woman at the Well (John 4)who preached the gospel message to her entire city (Samaria).
The first public proclamation of the resurrection was by Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9-11) whom Jesus instructed to inform to the other disciples of His resurrection. Later Jesus rebuked the disciples (Mark 16:14) because they had refused to believe the message.
The early church utilized women in positions of teaching, preaching, and church leadership: For example, Phoebe was greeted as a fellow apostle by the Apostle Paul, Priscilla taught the evangelist Apollos and, contrary to custom, she was listed first before her husband Aquilla, Lydia was the leader of the congregation which was established in her own home.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was co-founded by Ellen G. White who often preached, counseled, and corrected "the brethren."