From my old blog . . . 03.09.06

-
Women leaders in the church

The message board I'm associated with has been have a couple of good discussions regarding this issue. There are those who think this is / has been / should be allowed and those who do not. Both groups (like so many in debates) find support for their positions biblically. I hold to the former view (but haven't always). It seems to me that what I read in the Bible has a lot to do with the over arching story of god and creation and the relationship between the two. It seems that people rebelled and turned the world, the cosmos; i.e. god's 'very good' creation, into a tail-spin. The rest of the story is about god rescuing creation. We find that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus started the 'new creation' that the Jews longed for but didn't look like the thought it would. Part of this new creation is the up-lifting of women. That is, Jesus called women the 'daughters of Abraham'. He had women disciples (who, like their male counter-parts were studying to become rabbis). Women, who in that culture were considered chattel and their testimony was of no value, were the first to witness the resurrected Jesus. Women were the ones who preached to the other disciples about the resurrection. There were women apostles and deacons. There were also a few women leaders throughout church history.

So why can't women be leaders today? In the Episcopal tradition (which I am a part) there is a discussion about this exact thing. In our parish, we are open to that. We just sent a lady off to school with the blessing of our church.

I'll have to pick up this thought later. I gotta go to work.

May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

+OD

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linux Mint 5

-
Image
It's been a while since I did a technological (read: geek) blog, so I thought I would update you on what's going on. As you are aware, I am a full-fledged geek by trade and passion and I have gone from Windows to Mac to Linux.  My Linux evolution went from Linspire to Mepis to PCLinuxOS to Ubuntu .  I stayed with PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu for the longest.  However, I have always read good things about another distribution called Linux Mint .  It's based on the latest Ubuntu release but with a lot of add-ons.  The latest version is called Linux Mint 5, Elyssa.  So, at the office, I downloaded the latest iso and tried it out to see how it all worked. First of all, there are always some things I keep in mind when trying any new Linux distro, the primary thing being, 'How would the average user feel about using this OS?'  'Is it (very) simple to install?  Is it easy to use?  Is it easy to get help?  Is it easy to add or remove applications?  Is the terminal (command
Read more

Series: New Testament Eschatology

-
Image
From time to time, I hear a lot about the early church’s understanding of the “end of the world” or their belief that the “Second Coming of Jesus” would take place within their generation. And it’s usually not in a very good light. “They were obviously mistaken,” is often the remark I hear most. I know it’s hard to imagine but what if we’re mistaken? What if we’ve misunderstood what they meant? I’m hoping that this series on some of the major statements from the New Testament about the “end of the world” will show that they weren’t mistaken in their understanding of the “signs of the times.” Before we begin, however, let’s look at some terms that will have to be used. As most of you know, I try to refrain from using big “church” words. My reason for this is because those words are like suitcases where ideas and thoughts and understandings are packed into them. To explain the words would mean a long time spent unpacking the suitcases and explaining their contents. While such a pil
Read more

'Sick to my guts...'

-
I usually don't make posts like this because I'm way outta my element. But I am sick of all of the hype I see in the media. The whole one sided take on journalism. Each program has an agenda. As my wife says, 'You find what you're looking for'. It would absolutely kill a mainstream media person like Olbermann to say President Bush has done something good and right. Likewise it would kill a 'talk radio' media person like Limbaugh to say that Senator Clinton or Senator Obama did something good and right. We are a country shown the extremes. Most of the mainstream media are such Bush haters, that's right I stated 'haters', that they would actually explode if they had to report on the good that he has done. Likewise 'Fox' news and talk radio hosts are such Democrat haters that they, too, would explode if they had to report on any good that they have done. 'Fair and balanced' my butt! Everyone, everyone has their agenda. I
Read more