Luke 18.1-8 tells about the widow who lifts up her voice, crying out for justice. Women in the church today are like that widow. They keep on asking for justice, expecting that, like its Lord, the church will respond quickly to establish just relationships between women and men at all levels of church life.

In the Reformed family, and in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in particular, it was women who initiated the call for partnership of women and men in God's mission. Women realized that for many decades they had been engaged almost all by themselves in critical reflection on the status of women in church and society. This enabled women to identify what leads to women's exclusion, discrimination and marginalization in their attempt to participate fully in God's mission, but also taught them that they cannot break the chains of unjust relationships without involving men. It was time, therefore, to make deliberate efforts to include men, to move away from seeing women's concerns as if they were "women's issues" that do not concern the whole church of Christ.

Since 1992, work in WARC for partnership between women and men has been carried out by the programme to affirm, challenge and transform (PACT): women and men in partnership in church and society. The approach focuses on women and men together, rather than considering women in isolation. But the programme goes beyond gender issues; it attempts to understand God's mission for us as the basis for our partnership.

Partnership

Partnership is grounded in God's intention to renew the creation, beginning with us. This renewal is grounded in God's justice and covenant faithfulness.

Pushing ahead to explore theological aspects of partnership requires us to move out on a pilgrimage, to journey with Abraham and Sarah toward a promise that can be heard, but is not yet seen. In searching for new roles and relationships that might express concretely the possibility of partnership in church and society, we must move now to act as if we are equally human, equally partners with God in the New Creation, and be ready to pay the cost of our pilgrimage towards God's intended future.

Partnership in God's action is a faithful response to God's mission in the world. God has reached out to us in Jesus Christ to restore our broken humanity and to reaffirm God's partnership with us in the care of the earth and one another. Created in God's image, both female and male, we are called to relate to one another in ways that are faithful to God's intention for community.

God is author of the church, and the author of partnership within it. This is a divine project which calls for participation of all people of God in the work of evangelization, and the free contribution of everyone without exclusion. No one has the right to marginalize or discriminate against the other. Existing structures in the church favouring men should be reformed.

To affirm that God has authored partnership is to acknowledge that partnership is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Like other gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12 & 13), it is meant to be of service to the gospel of our salvation and not an end in itself. Partnership as a gift of the Holy Spirit in which there is a new focus of relationship in Jesus Christ sets us free for others. We are freed to engage in a common struggle against any kind of domination that deforms attempts to create new models of egalitarian communities. Letty Russell cautions us against the danger of "cheap partnership":

"[It] is crucial in order to guard against rhetoric of "cheap partnership" that avoids the difficult conversion process of rejecting the old superior and subordinate roles. For instance, white, affluent US feminists have often continued the practice of domination of women of colour and poor women while talking about shared authority. Partnership is not a substitute for liberation. It is a gift of God that most often comes after the shared struggle for liberation has made it possible to relate to one another beyond roles of domination and subordination."

God's Mission

It is necessary to revisit the meaning of God's mission, especially because the majority of WARC member churches are the product of the 19th- and 20th-century missionary enterprise, which perpetuated many misconceptions and at times created unjust relationships. Mission was presented as a one-way path shaped by western culture.

The missionaries indeed did a great job at that time, whether in opening schools, or churches, but the whole understanding of mission was modelled in their line of thinking. Mission at that time was perceived as those who hold the truth saving those who don't. The missionaries did not only impose their teaching but even their lifestyle. The way "evangelicals" lived in their homes became more of a western style.

Anne Pattel-Gray, an Aboriginal Christian woman from Australia, remembers the atrocities her people, especially the women, encountered at the hands of white people without a word of protest from Presbyterian missionaries in Australia. Instead, some of these missionaries perpetuated the theory that black people are inferior.

In 1915, a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend JRB Love, made this remark: "It would be foolish to argue that all men are equal. The blackfellow is inferior and must necessarily remain so." In 1934, a Presbyterian padre of the Australian Inland Mission made the following remarkable statement: "the niggers they've never been any good and never will be. The best they've a right to expect is a decent funeral." A decent funeral?!! While this European Presbyterian was making such statements, his own people were committing atrocities.

In such experiences, the meaning of God's mission has been deformed, and it is important for us to seek new ways of understanding God's mission today. As we declare God's reconciling work in Jesus Christ, we must also testify to this "new creation" by a transformed way of life. Partnership in God's mission goes beyond eliminating sexism to include the elimination of racism, classism and any other form of discrimination. It involves equipping the whole people of God for mission in a multiracial and multireligious world. We must struggle to live in justice, with dignity and wholeness (shalom), and in harmony with nature. As the judge answered the widow (Lk 18), so God answers women in the church, granting them full partnership in God's mission and saving activity, but they continue to cry out until this partnership is fulfilled in all our churches.

Historical background

Struggle for participation: women in the Alliance

One hundred and twenty years since the first general council of the Alliance met, the 23rd general council will be called to order by Prof Dr Jane Dempsey Douglass, the first woman president, elected in 1990. We have come a long way in regard to women's participation in the Alliance and in positions of leadership!

Women in the International Congregational Council

There were no women delegates at the first meetings of the two Presbyterian and Congregational bodies that later united to form the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. However, the first International Congregational Council (1891) discussed "the ministry of woman": "Who are we that we should assume an air of authority or patronage towards those who have hitherto been the strength and glory of our churches?" (ICC, 1891, p.49). The planning committee of the council was instructed to invite women delegates to attend future councils. In 1899, when the second International Congregational Council met, not only were women present, but three of them spoke on "Women's Work".

The inclusion of Congregational women in all the ministries of the church was not as easy as this might suggest. For several decades before the first International Congregational Council met, women in the Congregational churches in the USA struggled to gain access to theological education and to train for the ordained ministry of word and sacrament. Oberlin College, Ohio, opened its doors to coeducation in the mid-19th century, but its administrators did not encourage women to study theology. Determined young women insisted.

In 1843, at the age of twenty five, Lucy Stone entered Oberlin with the intention of studying theology, against the wishes of her parents and the college. She wanted to learn the ancient languages of the Bible in order to check the validity of translation and interpretation. She planned independent research in higher criticism. She utilized her theological knowledge in preaching.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell joined Oberlin in 1846, just before she turned twenty one. She wanted to train for the ministry, but it was clear that the college had no intention of preparing women for public speaking, which was an essential part of the training. Blackwell successfully completed her theological education in 1850 but could neither graduate nor receive a licence to preach.

Stone and Blackwell were good friends and supported each other in their pioneering roles, but Stone was quite convinced that the church would not change its mind about ordaining Blackwell: "You will never be allowed to do this. You will never be allowed to stand in a pulpit, nor to preach in a church, and certainly you can never be ordained." Blackwell told her, "I am going to do it". On 15 September 1853, she was ordained by South Butler Congregational Church in New York State. She became a minister, public speaker in the women's movement, wife, mother and writer.

By the end of the 19th century, several women had been ordained in the Congregational churches in the USA. Women's struggle to study theology and to enter the ordained ministry must have paved the way towards their inclusion in the International Congregational Council.

Women in the World Presbyterian and Reformed Alliance

Not until 1921, when Mrs Martin Yças from the Lithuanian church became the first woman delegate, were women present in the general councils of the World Presbyterian and Reformed Alliance. Prior to that, although several male delegates were accompanied by their wives, women did not attend the meetings. Instead, the women spent their time sharing with each other their involvement and experiences in the mission fields through the women's mission societies and boards that they had formed during the 19th century. During the third Council in 1884, the subject of "Woman's Work" was first discussed-by men only! At the end of the discussion, the members acknowledged that they had neglected women's work and formed a committee to study the matter further.

In 1888, at the fourth council, the committee on woman's work reported that both organization and training were needed. The council approved the principle of organizing the Christian work of women in subordination to the sessions and other courts of the church and also recommended that women be "set apart" (some delegates did not want to use the word "ordain") as deaconesses. These recommendations were followed by a lively discussion as delegates shared what women in their churches were doing in the congregations, ladies' associations, home and foreign mission boards and fund-raising. One delegate was particularly pleased that the committee did not propose to admit women to any place in the church that inferred a right to rule, but simply to take advantage of their singular power to work in certain cases.

From the foregoing, we see that the real issue for the male leadership in the churches and the Alliance was to recognize what women had already demonstrated in the life and mission of the church. The men were barely beginning to struggle with the issue of the ordination of women. Ordination had been understood for many centuries to be a right for men only. Most of the discussion was based on the Pauline letters and not on the gospels.

Although women's contributions were limited to congregational activities and were not supposed to include decision-making or theological discourse, their presence and participation in the home and foreign mission fields made a big difference in the years that followed. Some churches revived the order of deaconesses, which gave women the opportunity to work full-time for the church, in particular in women's ministries. In 1889, Nolin Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America ordained the first Presbyterian woman minister, Louisa Mariah Layman Woosley.

In their national churches, laywomen took advantage of the council's decision to organize churchwomen's organizations, concentrating on training and developing leadership skills. In the mission-established churches in the south, we also find many well-organized churchwomen's organizations, which these women helped to found through their involvement in the missionary enterprise.

In 1888, in London, during the fourth general council, the women met to share their experiences in the mission work. Mrs Matthews, the wife of the general secretary of the Alliance, suggested that an International Union should be formed for the women's societies connected with the Alliance churches; it was also proposed that the spouses hold conferences concurrently with future council meetings. These suggestions were accepted by the council. During the fifth general council, in Toronto in 1892, a large conference was held, and the International Union of Women's Societies was inaugurated.

An unfortunate consequence of these developments was to institutionalize separate service for women and men. This division was poignantly challenged by Mrs F. S. Bennet of America, one of two women (the other was Mrs W. L. M'Kerrow of Scotland) who were allowed to address the general council in 1929.

At the time of the American Civil War when the organizations of women were being formed, those in ecclesiastical authority within the church had every opportunity to make such adjustments as would make it possible for men and women to move together as a great unified body, but those leaders either did not sense the coming of a new period or, looking down the vista of the future, were affrighted and chose to continue male and female rather than to plan a united church. It is not unjust to say that masculine failure to recognize and seize this opportunity has been the background of the present separation of men and women in the service in the church.

During the first half of the 20th century women persistently urged full participation in the life and mission of the member churches and Alliance. The disruptions caused by two world wars offered women new opportunities. In the process, the women developed leadership skills and strategies on how to be included in the council as delegates. By 1948, attitudes towards women had changed, and seven women were delegates at the council. In 1954, ordination as a requirement for Council delegates was removed.

Women in leadership positions in the Alliance

At the same council meeting in 1954, two more important decisions were made in regard to women. The council passed a resolution favouring admission of women to the ministry of word and sacrament; and a department of women was created, operating on a voluntary basis without staff in Geneva. "The aim of the department was to study ways by which women may more effectively serve their church and the Alliance and to foster a closer fellowship among women in the Reformed churches of the world." The department was to help women to realize that "as they have done such magnificent work in secular spheres at first occupied by men, so Christian women are needed to use their ability in the service of God".

The Chair of the department, Lady Louise P MacDermott, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, was one of three women members elected to the executive committee; 1954 was the first time women were elected. Lady MacDermott was also the first woman vice-president (1959-64). Four other women have served as vice-president: Mrs H. Howard Black, United Presbyterian Church, USA, 1964-70; Mrs Shanti Solomon, Church of North India, 1970-77; Rev Ansley Coe Throckmorton, United Church of Christ, USA, 1982-89; and Prof Dr Jane Dempsey Douglass, Presbyterian Church (USA), 1989-90.

Throughout the second half of the century, women's struggle to affirm their dignity, personhood and full participation in the church was strengthened by more women entering seminary. Theological education and training for ministry opened doors for women to engage in theological interpretation and for the integration of women's gifts and leadership in the Alliance and in the churches. The department of women strengthened women's visibility by sharing information worldwide, especially on the ordination of women. As liberation and black theologies emerged among the oppressed people in the south and the USA, women also named their marginalization through feminist theology. They made sure that WARC would not overlook the struggle against the injustice of sexism.

In 1985, Rev Jill Schaeffer, Presbyterian Church (USA), became the first woman executive secretary in the department of cooperation and witness (created in 1965). She was succeeded by Rev Sarah Stephens, also PC(USA), from 1990 to 1994. Three women have served as Moderator of the department: Dr Margaret Shannon, United Presbyterian Church, USA, 1965-66, Mrs Jackie Mattonen, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, USA, 1977-82, and Rev Dr Sang Chang, Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK), 1989-present.

Since 1984 four clergywomen have been seconded by churches to work with WARC: Revs. Henny Dirks-Blatt, Evangelical-Reformed Church in Bavaria and Northwest Germany; Christiane Nolting and Ursel Rosenhäger, Church of Lippe, Germany; and Anna Ljung, Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.

The 22nd general council in Seoul, in 1989, resolved to have a full-time staff person on women's concerns. In September 1992, Rev Dr Nyambura J Njoroge, Presbyterian Church of East Africa, was appointed as the first executive secretary of the programme to affirm, challenge and transform (PACT), and WARC took up the concern that Mrs Bennet had named in 1929.

Out of the 32 members of the current executive committee, 11 are women: 3 of these are ministers, some others, elders. It should be noted, however, that despite the great progress that women have made in theological education and in leadership, no woman has ever served as general secretary or held the position of executive secretary or moderator of the theology department.

Suggestions for further study

S Wesley Ariarajah, Did I Betray the Gospel? The letters of Paul and the place of women, Geneva: Risk Book Series, WCC, 1996.
MC et J Bompard, Voyage autour de la femme, d'Eve à Benazer, ed. Bathélémy: Avignon, 1991.
Charlotte Bunch and Niamh Reilly, eds., Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for Women's Human Rights, New Jersey: Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University, USA, and New York: UNIFEM, 1994.
A Caron, Femmes et pouvoir dans l'Église, VLB éditeur, 1991.
Rebecca S Chopp, Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological Education, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995.
Aruna Gnanadason, No Longer a Secret, Geneva: Risk Series, WCC, 1993.
Aruna Gnanadason, Musimbi Kanyoro and LA McSpadden, eds., Women, Violence and Nonviolent Change, Geneva: WCC, 1996.
Elisabeth Gössmann, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel and others, eds., Wörterbuch der Feministischen Theologie, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1991.
Catharine JM Halkes, New Creation, London-Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991.
Musimbi RA Kanyoro and Nyambura J Njoroge, eds., Groaning in Faith: African Women in the Household of God, Nairobi: Acton Publishers, 1996.
Mary John Mananzan, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Elsa Tamez, J. Shannon Clarkson, Mary C. Grey and Letty M. Russell, eds., Women Resisting Violence: Spirituality for Life, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.
Megan McKenna, Not Counting Women and Children: Neglected Stories from the Bible, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994.
Carol A Newsom and Sharon Ringe, eds., The Women's Bible Commentary, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995.
Constance F Parvey, ed., The Community of Women and Men in the Church, The Sheffield Report, Geneva: WCC, 1983.
Luise Schottroff, Let the Oppressed Go Free, Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993.
Dorothee Sölle, Thinking About God, London: SCM and Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990.
Awa Thiam, La Parole aux Négresses, Paris: Denoël, 1977.
Awa Thiam, Speak Out, Black Sisters: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa, London: Pluto Press, 1986.
Faye Wakeling, Les théologies féministes: un apport nécessaire, un instrument de changement social, Aujourd'hui Credo, vol.42, 1995.
Johanna WH van Wijk-Bos, Reformed and Feminist: A Challenge to the Church, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991.