Women’s Group Contending for Complementarianism in Australia, Part 1

Editor's note: As reported yesterday on Gender Blog, the Anglican Church in Australia has been fighting a battle over biblical truth on the issue of women's ordination for much of the past two decades. Anglicans there recently moved to ordain women as bishops, but one group of women known as ‘Equal but Different'(EBD) has organized to contend for biblical truth in Australia. EBD formed in 1992 in response to a push for female ordination by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA). The organization exists to promote and defend the biblical pattern of relationships between men and women in both the church and home. Gender Blog interviewed Claire Smith, one of the group's leaders. Today is the first of a two-part interview with her. 

Gender Blog: Tell us more about the group and its activities.

Claire Smith: Since its inception, EBD has been involved in successive debates about the role of women in the church, both within the Diocese of Sydney and in the national ACA. We have presented Synods with statements signed by thousands of women opposed to unbiblical innovations of ordination of women to the priesthood and the consecration of women as bishops; we have spoken in Synod debates; we have made submissions to ACA committees and tribunals ruling on the question of women in the episcopate; we have contributed to the debate as it has spilled over into the secular media; and we have prayed the Lord will keep our church faithful to His Word, and have mercy on those faithful Christians who have to live with the consequences of these departures from biblical teaching.

EBD publishes a journal three times a year. This includes at least one major article of Bible teaching, interviews with women in various types of ministry (paid and unpaid), book reviews, ideas for ministry and updates on events or developments in the ACA or other denominations. EBD is also invited to run seminars in churches for women, and members of the steering committee speak at conferences, promoting and explaining the biblical teaching of complementary responsibilities for women and men. These opportunities arise within the Sydney Diocese, around Australia and internationally.

We have been involved in producing resources including a book, a documentary-style video/Bible Study program, a website (under review) and CD's of sermons covering the main Biblical texts.

Gender Blog: How many women are involved in EBD? Are most of them pastor's wives?

Smith: EBD is a Sydney based group that has a Steering Committee of eight women, ranging in age from their 30's to 60's; some are married; some are mothers and some grandmothers; some are clergy wives; some are in full time ministry positions (parish and university campus based); two are ordained as deacons; one is employed as an itinerate women's evangelist; one is pursuing doctoral studies in the NT; the majority of the steering committee has formal theological qualifications.

The diversity in our life situations is deliberate, since it enables us better to represent, minister and communicate with the different women in our diocese and the national church. Beyond the steering committee, the involvement of women is expressed through readership of the journal, and as signatories to statements defending the biblical view of gender relations during Synod debates.

Gender Blog: What is the situation in the Anglican Church of Australia? Are the majority of its members and leaders calling for all Anglicans there to embrace the ordination of women?

Smith: Many dioceses have proceeded to allow women to be ordained to the priesthood. Others, such as the Sydney Diocese, have sought to remain faithful to scriptural teaching and the Anglican tradition and have not changed the nature of ordained ministry; others, whilst having no real objections, have not as yet introduced women priests.

The Sydney Diocese, where EBD is based, is a large metropolitan diocese with evangelical leadership and a strong evangelical theological college. Over one third of active Australian Anglicans live in the Diocese. It is well known for its complementarian view of gender relations but also has churches, clergy and parishioners that would demur from the diocese on this matter and others.

In Sydney, there are growing numbers of gifted women pursuing theological training, and taking up ministry positions in parishes, university campuses, youth and children's ministries, chaplaincies in hospitals, schools and prisons, and being sent out as missionaries. Some of these women are ordained as deacons, or commissioned as Diocesan Lay Workers, and others are licensed pastoral workers. The strength of women's ministry in Sydney is testimony to the goodness of God in raising up women who are gifted and called to ministry, but also testimony to the goodness of God's pattern of relations between men and women in his church, and an indication it is not necessary for women to have identical ministries to men, for their ministry to be effective or appreciated.

In the ACA as it now stands, women can be ordained as priests, and can preach and lead parishes in most dioceses. A recent controversial decision by the ACA Appellate Tribunal has ruled there is no constitutional barrier to women being consecrated as bishops. The appointment of a woman as bishop in Perth is a consequence of this decision.

In dioceses which have not accepted these innovations, however, the ministry of women who have been ordained as priests is not always welcome or recognized, and even within those dioceses where women are ordained, there are individual churches that do not believe women should have identical ministries with men and would resist the appointment of a female priest, and within individual churches, there are people who believe the same.

Acceptance has been far from uniform. At every level from the national church right down to the person in the pew, there are those who have remained faithful to the scriptural teaching of differing ministries for men and women and not departed from this biblical pattern or Anglican tradition.

The innovation of women in the priesthood, and now women in the episcopate, means we are a church divided, without a common ministry and more significantly, without a common understanding of the word of God.