Posted on 08/23/2023 7:39:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Earlier this summer, the Southern Baptist Convention garnered considerable attention for its disfellowshipping of two churches that allow women to serve in the office of pastor.
Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and a smaller congregation known as Fern Creek Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, were disfellowshipped following a majority vote by messengers at the SBC's Annual Meeting in June. Some 90% of messengers voted to disfellowship churches that have women in the role of pastor. That is 9 in 10 messengers.
Several other Christian denominations allow women to serve as pastors, however. As The Christian Post previouslyreported, this number even includes churches that are considered theologically conservative. Yet while some of those denominations allow women to serve as pastors, they do not allow women to serve in higher roles, such as the office of bishop.
Though the SBC has garnered the most headlines of late, the denomination is far from the only Christian denomination that prohibits women from serving as either pastors or priests, as numerous theological traditions reserve ordination for men.
Read about 10 theologically conservative denominations that allow female pastors here and here
Here are seven examples of Christian denominations in the United States that do not allow women to serve in the role of pastor or priest. They include multiple Protestant sects, as well as older churches.
The Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church traces its origins to the first century and is most prominent in Eastern Europe and Africa, does not permit women to be ordained.
According to a question-and-answer section on the website of the Orthodox Church in America, this prohibition on female ordination “is a matter of Holy Tradition, as well as a vision of ministry as something not limited to the ordained priesthood.”
“I have come across theologians who posit that, while there may be no strictly theological objection to the ordination of women, Holy Tradition has never supported it, and that theological pursuits cannot be considered in isolation from the ongoing life of God’s People known as Tradition,” stated the OCA answer.
“Orthodoxy does not see the priesthood as a 'right' or a 'privilege.' It does not see the clergy as a caste apart from the laos tou Theou, the People of God. It does not understand ordination to the priesthood as a matter of justice, equality, political correctness, or human rights.”
The Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church, the largest denomination in Christianity which also traces its origins back to the first generation of Christians, does not allow for women to become priests.
In a 1998 document, the Catholic Church stated that it "has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women,” and it “is to be held definitively by all the faithful as belonging to the deposit of faith.”
“Ordination to the ministerial priesthood is reserved to men because the Church is bound to follow the example of the Lord, who chose only men as his Apostles,” continued the document.
“Christ's election only of men for apostolic office and ministerial priesthood represented not an accommodation to the cultural circumstances of Palestine in antiquity but a deliberate choice bearing on the very nature of these orders.”
American Baptist Association
The American Baptist Association, a network of independent Baptist congregations found both in the United States and abroad, does not allow for women to serve in the office of pastor.
On the “Beliefs” page of their website, under the category of “Church Offices,” the ABA explains that positions of ordained church leadership are reserved for men.
“We believe that there are two divinely appointed offices in a church, pastors and deacons, to be filled by men whose qualifications are set forth in Titus and 1 Timothy,” reads the entry.
Evangelical Free Church of America
Tracing its roots to 19th-century revivals in Scandinavia and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Evangelical Free Church of America does not ordain women to serve as pastors.
A document from June titled “Where We Stand in the EFCA: Denials and Affirmations” outlines a host of positions that the Evangelical denomination takes on assorted issues.
“We are not egalitarian in our understanding of the roles and functions of men and women in the church, but we do believe that the gifts and ministries of women are essential to the health and fruitfulness of churches and ought to be sought out and multiplied in ways that arise from and are consistent with our complementarian convictions,” read the document, in part.
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
The theologically conservative Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, which was established in the 19th century and presently boasts nearly 2 million members, does not ordain women pastors.
In a 2004 document titled “The Service of Women in Congregational Offices of Executive Director/President or Assistant Director/Vice President,” the LCMS outlined its objections to female pastors.
“The Scriptures clearly teach that God has given the pastoral office and the exercise of pastoral authority to men and not to women. For over nineteen centuries, Christendom has recognized this truth,” read the document, in part.
“Only during the 20th century in the West have some Protestant church bodies contradicted this truth and ordained women. While the scriptural restriction may contradict the prevailing winds of the egalitarian Zeitgeist [spirit of the time], the church belongs to Jesus Christ and not to the world.”
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a theologically conservative denomination founded by notable fundamentalist Christian academic and preacher J. Gresham Machen, does not ordain women.
In a 2005 document , the OPC addressed the argument of the Old Testament prophetess Deborah, who is commonly used as a scriptural example of why women should be allowed to serve as pastors.
“Deborah was a judge, a position roughly equivalent to a ruler such as a queen, president, or other civil authority. To judge was to rule,” stated the OPC. “It was not a position of religious authority; the priests and Levites were the preachers and worship leaders during that time.”
Presbyterian Church in America
The Presbyterian Church in America was founded in 1973, having split from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern) due to various theological issues, among them being the acceptance of women’s ordination in the mainline denomination.
“When the PCA was formed, objection to the ordination of women as pastors and elders was an animating issue,” noted a report by the PCA regarding women serving in church ministries.
“We agreed upon it and rallied around it (all of us, men and women), because we rightly saw that it was an issue of biblical authority.”
However, the theologically conservative denomination does debate the extent to which women can serve in the ministries of the Church, including the issue of female deacons.
One PCA blog entry from May explained that “dozens of PCA churches list, portray, or refer to women as deacons (not the sexed, informal term deaconess) or as members of the diaconate.”
No women pastors....period...Is that how I really feel? Damn right.
Female “pastors” never seem very interested in the Gospel.
We’ve been seeing women in ministry in many different denominations where it would be interesting to statistically evaluate how often pastors refer to the scriptures and teach from them, both sexes. How many references or commentaries on scripture, theological teachings of the faith community, practical guides, ect.
Any denomination that does allow women pastors is not following scripture and is thus corrupted by following the ways of the world, not the Lord.
I was once a COG admirer, but not since they routinely allow women in the pulpit. The charismatics are flagrant violators of this principle.
Doesn’t the Vatican have a fence?
Women pastors are nothing more than anti-Christian witches.
The leftist UMC meetings are almost ALWAYS run by a female pastor, who expresses disinterest in Scripture and absolute contempt for the UMC Book of Discipline (the official doctrine of the group.) The meetings are always based on deferral to 'feelings' and put all things 'gay' front and center, including announcements of plans to march in some upcoming "pride" parade or event. There is nothing biblical discussed. No opening prayer is ever offered. It's all "ME!"
The more conservative UMC congregations, those which ultimately disaffiliate, are always staffed by MEN, and the discussions are always preceded by prayer beseeching God to guide them and their decisions. Scripture is held in high regard, as is the Book of Discipline.
I think there is a solid basis for excluding women from pastor ministry.
The Bible doesn't say if she fed Barak's troops her Little Debbie pastries.
Ping!
LCMS reference.
Ephesians 5:23 “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.”
If I understand Orthodoxy correctly, that's just about the most damning thing an Orthodox Christian can say about a theological proposition. It's the equivalent of a Catholic saying "Anathema sit!"
“It’s a sign of the last days apostasy that there are only 7 church groups which recognize the biblical definition and example.”
Yes. It’s always good to remember that in the seven “Letters to the Churches” in the Book of Revelation, Jesus only really had nice things to say about two of them.
YES!!
When WOMEN LEAD................MEN LEAVE!!
How’d that Prohibition work out for you?
>> seven examples of Christian denominations in the United States that do not allow women to serve in the role of pastor or priest. They include older churches.
The Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church traces its origins to the first century and is most prominent in Eastern Europe and Africa, does not permit women to be ordained.
The Roman Catholic Church The Roman Catholic Church, the largest denomination in Christianity which also traces its origins back to the first generation of Christians, does not allow for women to become priests. <<
Gotta love the irony that the so-called "Bible belivin'" fundamentalist "born again" protestant churches, who are "very theologically conservative" and who swear up and down that they follow the "Bible alone" are the ONLY ones that ordain women "pastors"
Those "unbiblical" Catholic and Orthodox churches with the so-called "liberal marxist Pope" have NEVER allowed woman "pastors", and never will.
During a meeting at the UMC we attend
“What if they send us a gay pastor?”
Older woman: “Fine with me as long as it isn’t a woman”
I don’t know what it is about older people not liking female pastors even if they are in a denomination that allows them.
Ping
Our local first baptist church went liberal in the 1980’s, women deacons and pastors and are now touting they are not SBC and mocking the SBC decision to remove churches for women pastors. One of their female deacons is furious with the SBC for doing this but like your situation she is upset along with others, older members in the congregation which is dying, that they are allowing a gay choir director and youth leader(they now have almost no youth in the church). I said well the gays need to hear the Word and repent, but they don’t need to be in any position of teaching and leadership in that condition. Her response, well we can’t judge, all right...
She was complaining to me and I wanted to say something like, you are in reverse gagging on a gnat and swallowing a herd of camels here sister, but I listened to her rant. Her daughter when she was a teenager actually left her church in the 1980’s when they went liberal because of the women deacons/pastors thing, told her it wasn’t Biblical and they would regret it. They are, as their congregation is withering on the vine. It will close the doors in ten years as their remaining congregation dies off.
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