A Woman Pastor in the Brethren

DearMBchurch.ca:
           I was pretty surprised when I felt God leading me to be a pastor in a Mennonite Brethren church. Surprised because I’m a woman, and the MB church has a reputation of being dominated by men. The name Brethren is pretty descriptive of the pastoral leadership in this church.
            But almost three years ago my congregation, Lendrum MB, graciously invited me to be their leader, and I have felt loved and accepted here. The leadership gifts God has given me have been received by the church with open arms.
            However, it has been hard, very hard, for me to be a female pastor in the Mennonite Brethren denomination. It’s painful to go again and again to provincial conferences where there are no female delegates on the executive. Where all the speakers are men, or there is one token woman on a stage filled with men. To belong to a national body where every conference minister is a man. At provincial and national offices, women are limited to support staff roles. (Women do make important contributions to the church in those roles, but they don’t have as much power.) It’s been hard to go to a Pastor Credentialing Orientation where the struggles women face in ministry are not even addressed out loud. Women in ministry in the MB church have to face the sexism alone, without the support of conference leadership.
            I take seriously the words of Paul to the Galatian church, that in Christ there is neither male nor female. I see scriptural glimmers of a new freedom in Christianity that challenged the patriarchal society of biblical times. Today we do not have to live under the weight of an ancient sexist way of thinking that marginalizes and oppresses women.
            Yet in the Mennonite Brethren church the sin of patriarchy (male domination of women) is still alive and well. This is a major hindrance to sharing the gospel to the majority of Canadians. Women are the majority of Canadians. Women in Canada can use their gifts to be mothers, doctors, Supreme Court Justices, CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations, they can even be the Queen of Canada. They are equal under the law of Canada. Yet they enter the doors of a Mennonite Brethren church and from what they see and sometimes from what they hear, they are given the message, “Women cannot serve beside men in leadership roles. God won’t allow it. Men are the best leaders.”
            I am very grieved by this. I feel it as a heavy burden on my heart. So often I find myself near tears when I am in gatherings of Mennonite Brethren because I know that women’s gifts are not recognized.
            How many women just walk out the door? How many people reject Jesus because the message of the church is sexist? And what rich gifts has the MB church not received because they won’t let women serve in leadership?
            DearMBchurch.ca, please open your eyes to way the Holy Spirit is equipping the majority of the people in Canada. I would like to see a church where people in national leadership affirm the gifts of women publicly by saying that God gives women gifts for leadership. I would like to see that put into action by hiring women for conference leadership roles. Will I see that in my lifetime?

Love,
Carol Penner, Lendrum MB Church, Edmonton

Comments

[Cheryl Shepherd]

I hear your heart

[Kae Neufeld]

I believe that many of the leaders in the church are post feminist in their thinking and so do not even see a problem. At one point when I asked a leader what my role was as a leader in the church I was simply told I could cry any time I wanted to. At another time when I raised a question which caused our conference leadership some discomfort I was told that I was a pained , frustrated woman. When a conference leader told a very sexist "joke" at a conference, I challenged him and was told that other conference leaders had seen it as funny. At a conference we as delegates were all asked to pray that we would be willing to use our gifts to serve God and then at the next session women were excluded from the nomination list. I stood up on the conference floor and asked why women were excluded and was given no answer.
These are stories that can be repeated over and over. At this point there seems to be no will to change. It has been a blessing to find ways to serve outside the church.

[Tom Friesen]

Kae, that is not how I have understood the term post feminism. What you are describing sounds more like many leaders have not been effected by any facet of feminism at all and are blind to the issues that feminism strives to unveil. This then is patriarchy pure and simple. I am saddened by your experiences and the lack of thought and sensitivity they describe.