We are still collecting
information for this section! Please, give us your ideas and
suggestions! We are especially looking for the history of women’s
inclusion in the ministries!
When the Ecumenical Council of Churches was set up in
Amsterdam in 1948, the problem of differing praxis regarding the ordination of
women was thus already present. It was debated in the committee on “The
Life and Work of Women in the Churches”. The conclusion at that time
was as follows:
“The churches are not agreed on the important
question of admission of women to the full ministry. Some churches for
theological reasons are not prepared to consider the question of such
ordination: some find no objection in principle but see administrative or
social difficulties; some permit partial but not full participation in the work
of the ministry; in others women are eligible for all offices of the Church.
Even in the last group, social custom and public opinion still create
obstacles. In some countries a shortage of clergy raises urgent practical and
spiritual problems. Those who desire the admission of women to the full
ministry believe that until this is achieved, the Church will not come to full
health and power. We are agreed that this whole subject requires further
careful and objective study.”
‘Report of Committee IV:I. The Life and Work of
Women in the Church. 4. Ordination of Women’ in: The First Assembly of
the World Council of Churches (Man’s Disorder and God’s Design),
ed.W.A. Visser’s Hooft, London 1949, p. 147.
“The contribution of the WCC has been to help the churches to set
the discussion within the context of an emerging convergence on the
understanding of ministry and priesthood and, perhaps even more important,
within the concept of the unity we seek. The studies on the unity of the church
and the renewal of human community have enlarged and enriched the perspective
of this unity. Some have come to maintain that the churches’ ministry must
include women in order to show to the world the depths of unity in human
community and make the gospel and the vision of the kingdom credible in a
broken and divided world.” Mary Tanner
