Church Response To Discrimination Against Women In The Context Of Human Rights And Economic Challenges (Part Two)
Traditional African Society & Women:
Several works of literature on the role and place of women in African traditional society note that no degree of stereotyping against women existed in traditional Africa. The woman possessed the power to organize the family and society. There was an enormous task and responsibility conferred on womanhood. For St. Clair, the responsibility of both men and women was seen as complementary to one another: “There was a co-dependence and a balance that existed.” [22] In various traditional African societies, the African woman possessed the power that binds the society together. The survival of the family and the future of marriage depended greatly on the African woman. This is why Leith emphasizes that:
Culturally, African women were the transmitters of the language, the history and the oral culture, the music, the dance, the habits, and the artisanal knowledge. They were the teachers and were responsible for instilling traditional values and knowledge in children. Men were also essential in the transmission of knowledge to the youth because they had a different type of knowledge of the earth and environment, and also of ceremonies and traditions that were performed exclusively by men. [23]
In this regard, Leith explains that each gender had its role and responsibility, which helped in the formation and upkeep of the family, mainly as it affects the essential upbringing of children. Furthermore, Leith points out that the women had extensive knowledge of the natural environment; they were gatherers, meaning their communities depended on them to provide nourishment, or they would face starvation. Indigenous women in Africa were the healers; they held vital knowledge of herbs and medicines that ensured their communities’ survival. The indication is that women’s role in traditional Africa is a sine qua non to societal development. The impacts of the women were felt in every aspect of the life of the society. Thus, African women played a key role in the education and the teaching of children, especially the social, ethical, and moral values, which are part of the cultural standards for evaluating proper societal behavior. In evaluating the status and position of women in traditional Africa, Hafkin and Hanson reiterate that:
Women were treated with unparalleled respect because they were seen to be closer to the creator than men ever had the potential to be. This is because women themselves had the ability to create due to the fact that they were able to give birth. As a creation of life, they were charged with the sacred responsibility of caring for the needs of the next generation, and because of this, they can be regarded as the originators of the idea that is now known as sustainable development. [24]
Buttressing the above quotation, it is indisputable that societal sustainable development depends on a solid family structure. On this, Agarwal commented that the most critical aspect of life and survival in every society was the family. The women are often the backbone of the family in traditional Africa. Strong women who usually held pertinent positions in the family have always characterized the African family. [25] It is essential to mention that one of the many forms of traditional African notions of family structure, which cannot be ignored, was polygamy. Despite polygamy’s many woes, it is often viewed as a means of achieving family social and economic stability. B. Dobson elucidates in a broad perspective the necessity and importance of polygamy in family structure and its many benefits for the woman. According to him:
As a result of the agrarian society of the economy of traditional Africa, polygamy was considered socially necessary to ensure the continuation of the society and to provide for the needs of the many women who might otherwise never enjoy the status and benefits that accompany becoming a mother, a bearer of children and are thus a vital link to the ancestors. Wars between groups often resulted in the reduction of the male population. Thus, females usually outnumbered males. Unmarried women risked social humiliation without a husband and children; thus, the system sought to provide for the needs of everyone in the society. [26]
But despite the activities, roles, responsibilities, and positions women held in traditional African society, the man in pre-colonial Africa was still the head of the family and a leader of the society. The society was purely patriarchal. The man performed as the controlling agent in the family, while the women played supporting roles to the men. According to Agnes Loteta Dimandja [27], from a current observation of African society, women are generally banished from the public spheres of power. When they are urged to participate in the political life of their countries through civil and political authority, for instance, they often become indebted to the “chief” to whom they owe their “promotion.” However, African women demonstrate their merits outside of the political arena in another way. This ambivalent role is disclosed through the symbolic roles of mother, spouse, and educator. The African mother is more than a “domestic cook” in charge of managing the household.
The subjugation women suffer today on the grounds of being the “weak sex” is falsely determined by the differential roles of men and women. J.S. Mbiti[28] points out that one of the indispensable roles of women in traditional society is that they see to the general cleanliness of a sizeable number of special days devoted to the worship of the deity in several societies’ cleansing or scrubbing the floor, plastering the walls and decorating the ‘sanctuary.’ Not only these, but he also observes that the duty of women, especially among the Yoruba, is to worship the emblem of the gods with special herbs during the annual ceremonies. He further remarked that as part of women’s care of sacred places, women in some communities are responsible for providing regular sacred water for particular deities. For example, among the devotees of Orisa Nla, whose cult is widely acknowledged all over Yoruba land and in some other localities, women who have reached the menopausal stage or young virgins are solely responsible for the drawing of the early morning water from undisturbed brook.
Adewale corroborated this view and observed that the sacred water was aptly called “Omi Aifo” (because the women who fetch the water were expected not to talk with anybody on the way), and stored the water in Orisa Nla’s sanctuary. The water “is ceremonially given to the devotees and among other benefits, it is believed to make barren women fertile” and to cure some diseases. Mbiti’s observations clearly showed that women serve in several priestly offices in the African traditional religions. While Mbiti’s assessment might be correct, he mentioned nothing about women’s place and role in the Christian Church. Concerning the status of women in traditional African Society, Azikiwe points out that in traditional Igboland, the place of a woman is in the home as a wife and a mother, who stays to bear children, rear them up, and take care of the home. [29] They are regarded as inferior and people who cannot do any other thing except produce children.
Some scholars opined that in primitive societies, women were seen as property to be bought and sold and were treated as enslaved people or even animals, enjoying neither sympathy nor respect. In corroborating with the above statement, Pritchard noted that:
Women in European societies can choose to marry or not to marry, and if they choose not to marry, they may devote their lives xxvii to teaching, research, administration, charity, etc., or they combine married life with a profession or job and with all sorts of interest outside the home. The primitive woman has no choice. [30]
Similarly, Hirsh observed, “the view that men are superior is a trait which actively encourages stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination.” [31] Thus, the oppression of women was built into the fabric of the society. In the early part of the 20th century, there was a small percentage of educated women, so civil service and other social professions were seen as strictly men’s rights. Women seen in such professions were regarded as intruders in masculine professions. Palmer, writing on this, asserts that “the impression conveyed then is of an ordered society with women playing a secondary but cheerful accepted and important role.” [32] Thus, women in traditional societies were exposed to institutional obstacles. Some women were accorded special recognition and respect, such as priestesses, queens, wives of traditional titleholders, etc. Usually, such respect and recognition were given based on religious and traditional considerations. Also, the traditional women have a clear vision of Motherhood’s “sacred duty” and carry it with appropriate diligence and commitment. Hence, Rosaldo observed that:
Women take care of their children because the Igbo family is such that a man has his own house, whereas the wife and children have theirs, showing that children’s first level of socialization begins with their mother, who directs them on issues as they grow. Hence, women’s role as mothers and primary socializing of children, in turn, set up the possibility of a distinction between domestic and public spheres, the former the province of women, the latter of men. [33]
Emphasizing the same point, George notes, “As a mother, she sustains a relationship to children which involves their care and their nature as a wife which is made for her husband for his pleasure and reproductive purposes.” [34]
Women’s Place In Contemporary Church:
In 1965, Heinzelmann raised the question of ordination about what the traditional practice of excluding women from the priesthood may imply about the baptism of women. She cites the doctrine of the spiritual character imparted by baptism, which makes the recipient capable of receiving the other sacraments and grounds the Christian in the rights and duties of church membership. She asserts that “the exclusion of women from priestly ordination, a sacrament, quite obviously runs counter to this doctrine of the full effect of Baptism.” [35] In another 1965 article, Charles R. Meyer urges a “careful” and “unprejudiced” re-examination of the question of the ordination of women in the early Church and States “to push the argument against the sacramentality of the ordination of deaconesses too far would be in fact to deny the sacramentality of the order of deacons.” [36]
The most substantial Roman Catholic contribution to the ordination discussion currently available in English is Haye van der Meer, S.J., Women Priests in the Catholic Church. [37] He investigated the arguments from Scripture, tradition, the magisterium, and speculative theology that dogmatic theologians have offered to affirm the practice of excluding women from orders, and concludes that “Catholic dogmatic theologians may not hold that according to the present position of theology it is already (or still) established on a scholarly basis that office’ should, by divine law, remain closed to women.” [38]
John J. Begley, S.J., and Carl J. Armbruster, S.J., likewise find the traditional material inconclusive and thus suggest that the issue of ordaining women is “pre-eminently a pastoral question.” [39] Pastoral arguments for and against ordination emphasize two interrelated aspects of priesthood: the functional and the symbolic. Mary Angela Harper inquires in an early article whether women’s contribution might be destroyed by being forced into “the existing structure of ecclesiastical functions and offices,” [40] and J. Galot, has argued that the priestly tasks related to cult, government, and preaching are “specifically masculine.” Women, he notes, are divinely destined to cooperate with these tasks but not to share them. He considers woman’s natural “feminine docility” to be in accord with the “masculine pastoral function of government” and holds that, with regard to preaching, woman performs the indispensable function of assimilating the truth as proclaimed by male preachers and then transmitting it in unofficial situations, chiefly to the young. [41] Still, others have suggested that the ordination of women at this time could have the negative effect of perpetuating a hierarchical “caste structure.” [42] Gregory Baum, on the other hand, maintains, “The ordination of women to the priesthood would restore a prophetic quality to the Church’s ministry, educating people to discern the injustices in present society and presenting them with an ideal for the participation of women in the life of society.” [43]
Frederick P. Chenderlin, S.J., acknowledges that ontologically, God could “work a miracle” that would empower a woman to “fulfill the task of consecration,” but argues that the maleness of Christ is vital because, at the Last Supper, he was “playing a particularly masculine role” [44] in undoing the harm caused by Adam. As Chenderlin interprets Paul, the maleness of Adam is essential to his headship and authority, and analogously, Christ’s redemptive activity must involve maleness since “man has precedence in authority over woman.” [45] Evans, Price, and Barnhouse, on the other hand, maintain that including women in ordained ministry could enhance the symbolic power of priestly service. [46] They are basically in agreement with Begley and Armbruster, who hold that “it is extrinsic and accidental to the incarnation that the specific human nature assumed by the Son was masculine.” [47] Evans maintains that “men and women redeemed in Christ’s friendship might be better symbolized by male and female priests, not the one sex voiding half the meaning of the symbol,” [48] and Cunningham points out that the ordination of women at this juncture of history might well serve to guarantee and express orthodoxy of faith since to exclude woman from priesthood based on sex amounts to “a new mode of neo-Arianism.” [49] Recently, arguments for ordination have emphasized the need to symbolize the fact that the image of God is both male and female,[50] and this approach entails an essential shift in the discussion. Rather than asking whether it is right to include women in official ministry, these writers are inquiring, at least implicitly, whether it is wrong to continue excluding them.
In church leadership and ordination, Lavinia is categorical that the Roman Catholic Church’s position is that women cannot be ordained. In “the Catholic system, you cannot exercise the fullness of any leadership role unless you are male and ordained. Only the ordained men may lead.” According to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in Modern World, 267, which Lavinia quotes, “Women are now employed in almost every area of life. It is appropriate that they should be able to assume their full proper role by their nature.” She pleads upon everyone “to acknowledge and favor the proper and necessary participation of women in cultural life.” This implies that women could make more contributions if given the opportunity. Elsewhere, she notes that all people are born equal.
Therefore, there should be no social or cultural discrimination based on sex, race, color, social condition, language, or Religion, which must be overcome and eradicated as centrally to God’s intent. This gives hope to women that they might be considered for essential roles in the Church. On the issue of women and the sacrament of priestly ordination, Clifford[51] makes reference to the era of the second wave of feminism, when debates regarding the ordination of women began to occur in different churches such as the Roman Catholic, Protestant Episcopal, and Anglican Communion churches. He addressed the issue of the ordination of women in these different churches. He concluded that such issues keep recurring due to long-held traditions in these churches. Clifford points out that not all (Catholic) feminists support the priestly ordination of women. She asserts that this is the case because these feminists believe that the goal of attaining full partnership in the Church will not be achieved by ordaining women priests and that the hierarchical distinction between ordained priests and the laity exacerbates the existing problems. [52] Women in Pentecostal churches function in both supportive and substantive roles. Substantively, women function as prophetesses, founders, martyrs, bishops, and evangelists. Despite this, the subject of women’s role in the Church is controversial.
Most independent African Churches are well disposed to women’s leadership role in the Church as opposed to the mission churches where, according to Babalola, “Women could only lead in association that concerns solely the women.” The implication is that in the established mission churches, women are not given room to occupy leadership positions except when they have to lead their fellow women. Akin to this, Hewitt [53] opined that though the situation of women in church roles is changing in the West since most of the major Protestant denominations have removed formal barriers to the ordination of women, the churches are far from showing equality in leadership. This is because, according to Hewitt, women are still not allowed some critical positions of authority and responsibility in the Church. Alana [54] argued in favor of women’s leadership roles in the Church using the examples of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church and Christ Apostolic Church, both independent African churches.
Sackey[55] examines the new dimension in gender relations in African Independent Churches (AICs) about women in leadership positions in the Church. She highlights how women have managed to break through the glass ceiling to reach the pinnacle of leadership in the Church. She further stated that women in AICs have been involved in finding alternative solutions to issues affecting the nation, bringing them into the high echelons of decision-making bodies. As stated by Sackey, some women members of AICs are today involved directly in political decision-making in their capacity as members of parliament, negating the old-age idea that women are apolitical. Sackey further stated that, despite all these achievements, it has been observed that the contributions of women in mission churches are slow in forthcoming. Sackey highlighted the differences between mission and spiritual churches in giving reasons for this situation. She states that the male-oriented nature of the mission churches contributes to their reluctance to develop females’ capabilities as leaders. For the Church in Africa, the ordination of women into leadership roles in the Church continues to be a complex issue.
In Kosomo Daniel’s article, he said African Theologian M. Oduyoye exposes the problem as she writes:
I study Okan proverbs (attempting) to demonstrate that women fall victim to linguistic imagery that socializes them to accept “their place” in society and to view with caution any call for more space Oduyoye (1990) in her book” Women Tradition and the Church in Africa.” She observes that in the traditional communities of Yoruba (Nigeria) and Akan (Ghana), where gender socialization is the norm, the strategy has distorted the quality of human relations, and it continues to deny the parity between women and men or to accept female and male as equivalent expressions of human being. Odudoye’s study has led her to conclude that chauvinism is a problem in Africa, “and not created … by the arrival of Islam and Christianity, but, one that is an integral part of our African world-view” “Women, in general, are educated to believe that being born female means to be born innately inferior damaged that there is something with us. We are told we are needed as mothers, caretakers, and cheap labor in the fields and factories. Due to women’s low self-esteem, they underrate themselves and leave leadership roles to men. The traditional way is that women do most of the work in the Church and society, and men hold most of the leadership. [56]
In an interview with Isaacson, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, while enunciating his view on the role of women in the Church, explained that there is nothing unscriptural in women ministering. He buttressed this with the fact that women-led Bible studies in the early days of the Church. He, however, hinted that:
I could see from the scriptures that women have a lot of things to do at home. We still want them to take care of the family and the children. We wouldn’t want their ministry in the Church to conflict with the training of their children at home. So we try to strike a balance. [57]
Also, the Deeper Life Leadership Strategy Congress Booklet (1996) stated that there could be no higher ambition for a Christian woman than to be a faithful wife and a happy and influential mother. In conclusion, Bamisebi Olumakaiye writes that women’s ordination is a thorny issue in Anglican Communion as it is in all other mainline churches elsewhere in Nigeria. He comments that the situation has become more challenging following the World Council of Churches’ approval in 1987 of women’s ordination and women being given leadership in the Church. He also notes that in the Anglican Communion, the Lambeth Conference of 1988 also passed a resolution to recognize the admittance of women into the priestly order. For him, all these properly serve as a foothold for feminists and their sympathizers in the Church to adequately argue their cases in the Nigerian context.
However, he points out that there is a consensus among bishops of the Church of Nigeria that women should be admitted to permanent diaconate. Still, the resolution is yet to be implemented. He concludes that the reason for this can probably be the existing socio-culture, tradition, and other relevant challenges.
An overview of some of the challenges women have faced and are still facing are:
- Economic Disadvantage:
Economic power is critical to the ability of women to surmount challenges and be at the top leadership level either in the society or the Church. Most women are economically disadvantaged. Some women are thriving in businesses, and some are well-known successful entrepreneurs. The Federal government in Nigeria has in the past and presently helped Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), but most banks are not willing to grant required funds due to lack of collateral.
- Discriminatory Customs and Laws
The customs practices of many states in Nigeria subjugate women to men and undermine their self-esteem. The overall impact of gender bias, cultural norms, and practices has entrenched a feeling of inferiority in women and placed them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their male counterparts in the socio-economic, political settings, and church management.
- Lack of Adequate Education
Though some school enrolment shows more females than men, women still constitute a more significant percentage of the illiterate group in Nigeria, especially in rural communities. There is an old custom of preference for sons to attend schools instead of daughters that few parents still hold on to today. Daughters are looked at as belonging to their eventual husbands and would belong to another family. There is a glaring disparity of gender inequality in theological education. Few women enroll to study religious or theological education and church leadership studies. In most human societies, the male is accorded a superior status, role, privileges, and opportunities to develop his potential and capabilities. At the same time, the female is subjected to an inferior subordinate status. It has resulted in gender inequality educationally, politically, socially, economically, and religiously. Women are wiser now and are pursuing education with great zeal.
- Domestic Violence:
Women face a lot of systematic discrimination from entrenched power relations that perpetuate the universal subordination of females. This discrimination makes them highly vulnerable to being harmed physically, sexually, or psychologically by men in their families and communities.
5. Lack of Affirmative Action Quota:
Affirmative Action is usually a measure intended to supplement non-discrimination; it is a broad term encompassing a host of policies that seek to support weak groups in society. They include policies where deliberate Action is used to stop discrimination. In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the ‘Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’ – (CEDAW). Since its adoption, it has become a reference point for the women’s movement’s demand for gender equality. The 1999 Constitution made provisions similar to affirmative Action to supplement non-discrimination. Today, Nigerian women are clamoring for 35% affirmative action. It is not the use of ‘Affirmative Action’ that seems to be the problem but the practical effects and its linkage to fundamental ideas of fairness and Justice. The stronger argument for gender-based affirmative Action is just a token for equal representation in a country where women, who constitute about half or more of the population, have been continuously sidelined in public life to the extent that they have never held more than 15% of both appointive and elective offices.
Unlike the constitutions of some African countries, i.e., South Africa and Uganda, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria takes no cognizance of the disadvantaged position of women and has no provision for gender equality. Apart from the general reference to non-discrimination based on sex and so on, nothing in the constitution is aimed at addressing the disparities that exist along gender lines in Nigeria. In the Anglican Communion Church of Nigeria, there is still discrimination against women ordination as priests. Even though Anglican Communion in South Africa, some other African Countries and Countries in the West, like the United Kingdom and the United States of America, have female priests and bishops. [58]
Church Response To Women’s Challenges And Discrimination:
Jesus broke with tradition and treated women in a much more egalitarian way than was customary in the society of that time. The early Christian churches followed Jesus’ lead and gave women much higher status and more privileges than was common in the rest of the world. But Paul and other Christian leaders continued to affirm the principle of a husband’s family leadership and authority over his wife.
Christians disagree over whether this principle should apply in the modern world. Is the man’s authority over his wife and family a great spiritual principle decreed by God for all time, or is it, like the Bible’s teachings about slavery, just a reflection of the realities of Biblical-era culture? Today, many Christians believe women should enjoy all the same rights and privileges as men. Other Christians, however, continue to advocate a secondary role for women based on Genesis 3:16 and other Biblical passages.
The relationship between man and woman to God and one another depends on the biblical theology in Genesis 1: 27. Religion sustenance of male’s powers is based on a mythical superiority, which makes man the norm of humanity. The imprint of the myth is in the Bible and the Qur’an, especially in the wrong translation of texts by male religious leaders that have equated them with the word and will of God. The truth is that the world, including the Church, teaches opposite the teachings of the Bible. The world needs not politics, philosophy, or Religion but a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ – the mission of missions that will grow the Church. The Church’s response to the world is to uphold the word of God by ensuring gender equality. It has to start in the Church by not discriminating against women as ordained priests.
The Bible has a response to each of the gender hindrances: Philosophical, Religious, Political, and Economical. The consequences of wrong Scripture translation have led to Domestic Violence, Migratory Flow of Labour, and Sexual Abuse/Rape. The paper strongly advocates the systematic study of the Bible and hermeneutic exegesis by scholars to avoid wrong biblical interpretations. The Pentecostal churches, some very wealthy, have hardly intervened to address the challenges of these women facing economic deprivations. It is time to think inward and look at the suffering faces of women in the Church. The Bible teaches us to care for the poor, the widows, and the marginalized. Some churches are very good at welfare, so it should continue, while others should emulate the caring services.
Conclusion:
Nigeria has had top-to-bottom programs like the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), the Peoples’ Bank, the Family Support Programme (FSP), etc., which were not entirely adequate. The emphasis here is bottom-top programs that would engage women from the grassroots. There are some legitimate hindrances to total emancipation of womanhood. All of them are significant and real but not impossible to overcome. The Bible has a response to each of the obstacles and hindrances. Therefore, the Church, built on a Biblical foundation, must respond to each hindrance and assist the women believers. Some barriers to women’s emancipation are gates erected by the masculine gender, and some are self-imposed by the feminine gender. Liberation theology teaches that the world’s people must be free from social-political-cultural-economic oppression, but the gospel relates primarily to sin.
Christ’s future kingdom on earth will ultimately deal with all problems – 1 Pet. 2:24-25. The world needs not politics, philosophy, or Religion but a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ – that is the mission of missions. In Genesis, we could conclude that God handed the microeconomics and macroeconomics of the whole world to both males and females as He created them – Gen. 1:28-30. All power belongs to God, and He has given both males and females equal leadership power in secularity and Religion. In essence, gender discrimination is a ‘sin,’ and the Church must desist from sinful conduct. The Church’s response to the world is to uphold the word of God by ensuring gender equality. It has to start in the Church by not discriminating against women as ordained priests. This paper calls upon religious leaders to play complementary roles with the political leaders and society. They are to address the plight of the discriminated female gender, facilitating improved living and working conditions and enabling them to play more roles in top leadership in churches and society.
References:
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- [23] Ross Leith, African Woman, New York: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1967, 34.
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- [29] U. Azikiwe, Women in Development in the Society in Contemporary Sociology. John Jacobs Classic Publishers, 1997:155
- [30] Cited in Ozioma Faith, Onyenucheya, “The Role Of The Church Towards Amelioration Of Socio-Cultural Practices Inimical To Women,” A Thesis Submitted To The Department Of Religion And Cultural Studies faculty Of Social Sciences, University Of Nigeria, Nsukka, January 2012.
- [31] M.F. Hirsh, Women and Violence. New York: Vans Nostritand Reinhmold, 1981, 1
- [32] E. Palmer, The Feminist Point View: Buchi Emecheta’s The Joy of Motherhood. Africa Literature Today No. 13. Other Essay in Social Anthropology, 1983, 88
- [33] MZ. Rosaldo, Women Culture, and Society New York. John Willey and Sons., 1973: 163.
- [34]H. George, The Poetry Foundation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979:864.
- [35] Heinzelmann “The Priesthood and Women,” Commonweal 81 (1965) 507.
- [36] Charles R. Meyer “Ordained Women in the Early Church,” Chicago Studies 4 (1965) 301.
- [37] Tr. Arlene and Leonard Swidler (Philadelphia, 1973). This doctoral thesis, which van der Meer completed under Karl Rahner, S.J. 1962, was first published as Priestertum der Frau? (Freiburg, 1969)
- [38] Van der Meer, 9. In 1973, the Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called for an “exhaustive study” of the reasons for and against women’s ordination. The Committee’s report, “Theological Reflections on the Ordination of Women,” is reprinted in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies 10 (1973) 695-99. It focuses on traditional arguments against ordaining women and does not give evidence of having taken into account the work of van der Meer. In “Will Women Be Ordained?” Origins 2 (1973) 743-44, Ann Gillen, SHCJ, objects to the negative emphasis of the report and predicts that a growing sense of rejection by the Roman Church will lead Catholic women to seek ordination in other Christian churches or to evolve an independent priesthood according to their sense of vocation.
- [39] John J., Begley, S.J., and Carl J. Armbruster, “Women and Office in the Church,” American Ecclesiastical Review 165 (1971) 145-57. Others stressing a pastoral approach include Meyer, Man of God, Gerald O’Collins, S.J., “An Argument for Women Priests,” America 129, 1973,122/3
- [40]Mary Angela Harper “Women’s Role in the Church,” America 115, 1966, 93
- [41]J. Galot, L’Eglise et la femme (Gembloux, 1965), 203.
- [42] Elizabeth Gössman, “Women as Priests,” tr. Simon King, in Apostolic Succession: Rethinking a Barrier to Unity, ed. Hans Küng (Concilium 34) . 115-25; Ann Kelley and Anne Walsh, “Ordination: A Questionable Goal for Women,” Heyer, Women and Orders, pp. 67-73
- [43]Gregory Baum “Ministry in the Church,” Women and Orders, 57-66
- [44] P. Frederick and S.J., Chenderlin, “Women as Ordained Priests,” Homiletic and Pastoral Review 72 (1972) 27
- [45] P. Frederick and S. J., Chenderlin, 31
- [46] Evans, Art. cit.; Charles P. Price, Ordination of Women in Theological Perspective (Cincinnati, 1975); Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse, “An Examination of the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in Terms of the Symbolism of the Eucharist,” Women and Orders, 15-37
- [47] Cited in Women And Religion: A Survey Of Significant Literature, 1965-1974
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- [52] Clifford 2001, 140-148
- [53] Alan L. Hewitt, Gender Revolution, The: Emancipating Women and Empowering the Church Paperback, River Publishing & Media Ltd., 2016. 1st ed., 1976
- [54] Olu Emmanuel Alana, “Liberation of Womanhood: Fetters of Conservatism with Particular Reference to Women Leadership in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.” In African Journal of Biblical Studies, Vol. VII, No 1, April, 1992, 93
- [55] Brigid M. Sackey, New Directions in Gender and Religion: The Changing Status of Women in African Independent Churches, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006
- [56] Cited in K. Daniel, 128 & 129
- [57] Isaacson, A., Deeper Life: Extraordinary story of the Deeper Life Church, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990
- [58] Ogbaji Udochukwu: https://plus.google.com/
Bibliography for Parts One & Two:
Afisi O. T., “Power and Womanhood in Africa: An Introductory Evaluation,” in The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.3, no.6, March 2010
Agarwal Bina, Socio-Economic Background of Traditio African Family System, New York: Oxford University Press.1970
Alana, Olu Emmanuel, “Liberation of Womanhood: Fetters of Conservatism with Particular Reference to Women Leadership in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.” In African Journal of Biblical Studies, Vol. VII, No 1, April, 1992,
Azikiwe U., Women in Development in the Society in Contemporary Sociology. John Jacobs Classic Publishers, 1997
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