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The New Christian Woman
Today's guest blogger, Chelsea Guenther, is a junior at Agnes Scott College majoring in religious studies with a concentration in social justice. She spent the summer interning at Interfaith Youth Core and is sad to be leaving so soon.
I am a Christian woman.
In some denominations within my religious tradition, that fact would limit me. Despite my gifts and the call I feel from God to make my vocation into service to the people of the church, I would not be allowed to preach or even to lead a youth group. I would be expected to strive to conform to the ideal image of the "Christian woman," including being submissive.
That was not my experience, praise be to God.
Since 1930, the Presbyterian Church USA (PC-USA) has ordained women as elders. I joined that great legacy in 2005, when I was ordained as a youth elder at my church. During a regular Sunday service one day that spring, all of the new elders were called to the altar at the front of the sanctuary. We said our ordination vows and then were asked to kneel. I knelt side by side with the other new elders, most of whom were twice my age. A large crowd of already-ordained elders surrounded us. They laid their hands on our shoulders as the pastor prayed, an old tradition of passing blessings and the spirit from one to another. I was overwhelmed. Without knowing quite what it meant, at that moment I took a visible part in the story of female leadership within the PC-USA.
My grandmother is also a part of that story. She and my dad had both been elders in my church. She insisted that the three of us take a picture on my family's front porch to commemorate the day, saying, "We now have three generations of elders in the Guenther family!" She smiled the whole day.
I understood her excitement and pride, but I didn't comprehend the depth of the experience and the meaning of my ordination. Something about that day was special and mystical, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
A few years later, at a Sunday night worship service at college, our seminary intern told us about the Celtic Christian concept of "thin spaces." These are the places where the veil between heaven and earth seems to be so thin that it is as if we could reach out and touch God.
Church that Sunday felt like a thin space--the laying on of hands was one of the most tangible ways I have ever felt God's presence. It was as if God said, "I am with you. Other people can see that. You are my servant and witness." It was the church's way of saying, "We know that God has called you to be a leader within our congregation. We are here to help you answer that call."
Fifty years earlier, in 1955, the General Assembly of the PC-USA voted to allow women to be ordained as ministers of Word and Sacrament. A year later, Margaret E. Towner became the first woman in the PC-USA to be ordained as a minister. In 2006, women made up about 30% of active clergy. Important women in my life--including Kate, my college chaplain--are part of that inheritance.
Because I have the chance to be a part of that story, I am grateful to be a member of the Presbyterian Church. The church has blessed me with the freedom to answer God's call, whatever the next call may be.
For more info on the history of women's ordination within the PC-USA, click here.
The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.
By
Eboo Patel
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August 6, 2008; 11:07 AM ET
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Personal Religion
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Theology
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Posted by: Arminius | August 7, 2008 7:08 PM
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Chelsea - What a thoughtful and educational post. Thanks for helping to expand the understanding of what it means to not only be Christian, but Presbyterian in a world that would so like to lump everyone and everything into one set of manageble boxes. Take care - Bruce
Posted by: Bruce Reyes-Chow | August 7, 2008 11:12 AM
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Son of top Hamas leader converts to Christianity
'I hope my father and family open their eyes to Jesus and the Kingdom of God'
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Posted: July 31, 2008
1:35 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Sheik Hassan Yousef (Passia.org)
JERUSALEM – The son of one of the most popular leaders in the Hamas terrorist organization has moved to the U.S. and converted to Christianity, it has emerged.
In an exclusive interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Masab Yousuf, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, slammed Hamas, praised Israel and said he hoped his terrorist father will open his eyes to Jesus and to Christianity.
"I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God," Masab said.
Masab said he previously aided his father with Hamas activities, but he now has affection for Israel and laments Hamas.
(Story continues below)
"Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country," he says.
"You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Muhammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death."
Masab slammed Palestinian society as "an entire society [that] sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheiks tell their students about the 'heroism of the shaheeds.'"
Masab's father is considered the most popular Hamas figure in the West Bank. He is serving a sentence in Israel for planning or involvement in multiple terror attacks, including an infamous 2002 suicide bombing in the school cafeteria of Jerusalem's Hebrew University in which nine students and staff members were killed.
In a statement to the Palestinian Maan news agency, Masab's brother, Suhaib, strongly denied that Masab converted to Christianity.
But Haaretz stood by its story. The newspaper said it sent a correspondent to the U.S., who met with Masab for a detailed, in-person interview.
Posted by: JASON | August 7, 2008 9:43 AM
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"A few years later, at a Sunday night worship service at college, our seminary intern told us about the Celtic Christian concept of "thin spaces." These are the places where the veil between heaven and earth seems to be so thin that it is as if we could reach out and touch God."
Yep. Same thing we Celtic Pagans speak of when we say 'The Veil between the worlds is thin,' in a given time or place or not-a-time-and-not-a-place.
That's part of the heritage, whether you choose to call it God and/or ....other things, or... the worlds. :)
Of course, the folks who take exception to women clergy may not like you any better for the knowing of that than the usual not-knowing, but everyone's a critic. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | August 6, 2008 8:20 PM
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Chelsea,
Excellent essay, thanks. I am Episcopal, and we have many women as priests, even bishops. Indeed, the current head of the Episcopal Church in America is a woman. I personally know some of these women, and they are remarkable, they have my complete respect.
As to the Thin Veil Between the Worlds - I have enough Celt in me to appreciate that. Indeed, I have been there a few times, and it is, to say the least, a humbling experience.