Thoughts on women...

Lately we've seen the UK public plant themselves at two different ends of the spectrum. Racist and antiracist. It was like a real life theatre piece of good versus evil, and on a day of antiracist protests it seems, 'good' won, with the racists predominantly staying home and the antiracists claiming the streets. It was both heartening (to see such support or our black and brown brothers and sisters) and worrying (because the violently intent racists haven't disappeared, they just stayed home for a day).  However, my thoughts today aren't predominantly about racism. While these events have certainly caused me to keep it in my mind and to check in on my black and brown friends, my thoughts for this blog post have landed on a philosophical topic and I am wondering if seeing such polarisation leads us to believe that there are only ever extremes of views and no room for nuance in the conversation. What I've learnt about racism over the past however many years is tha...

I'm back with more (personal!) thoughts on Elders. This time about 1 Tim 2:13 "For Adam was formed first, then Eve". See my previous post here focusing on 'Pronouns and Traditions'  based on 1 Tim 3:1-12. I think for some who have a complementarian stance, the linguistics of the passage in 1 Tim 3:1-12 are not so relevant an argument, it's more about what they see as the original principles of male headship, ergo male only elders. So if you truly believe that male headship is correct, then of course the linguistics of chapter 3 are irrelevant because you'd only see the explicit language as confirming the male bias. So headship. First up two things, I think it's interesting that male headship is not mentioned until Ephesians 5:23 (when Paul first used the term 'kephale'). I also think it's interesting that Jesus didn't mention headship at all and when he did talk about marriage, he said it in the context of the Eden blueprint of a husban...

A couple of weeks ago we heard at the Covid Inquiry that a lack of female perspective at the heart of government had a significant and negative impact on policies implemented during that time. Helen MacNamara, former deputy cabinet secretary pointed to resistance within government to consider the gendered impact of the lockdown, including women and children experiencing domestic violence, childcare, unpaid carer roles and the impact on pregnant women's experience of maternity care. Many of the findings of the inquiry have been difficult to hear but they aren't surprising. When women's voices are not represented or listened to, the result is inequity between the sexes and women usually bearing the brunt of it. It is interesting to discover that globally, when women are in positions of government and influence, outcomes for all are improved, including healthcare, education and policies relating to inequality of all kinds. Governmental decision making is improved when women ar...

Keen as ever to have a firmer grip on what my beliefs are, it is always worth looping around every now and then and thinking and reconsidering a stance. I do the same in my midwifery role too and challenging deeply held beliefs is an important way of staying fresh and focused. And in the same way that midwifery is a continually emerging field of research, the same is true for this topic area in Christianity. The more we learn and scrutinise our practices and the way we understand the world, the better we are able to be and the better our care towards others. In the immortal words of Maya Angelou, "When you know better, you do better".  As a woman who has been brought up in the complementarian sphere, my journey into the egalitarian camp has been a somewhat tumultuous one. At points it has almost felt too hard to stay in this new 'camp'. Surrounded as I am by good people who hold the complementarian set of beliefs with such conviction, it is impossible not to confronte...

A trip down the hall of fame of incredible women in the Bible, you don't have to go too far before seeing Deborah's name. Deborah was a prophet and judge in Israel and curated a time of both success in war and 40 years of peace. The judges era was a bit of an unsettled, cyclical time for the Israelites, who seemed to bounce from one end of the spectrum of being close to God, to apostacy at the other, experiencing hardship and begging for forgiveness. Deborah had her work cut out as one of the eleven judges of those times. Judges makes for interesting reading - if you are looking for drama, then look no further than this text. There seems to be no question in the book of the relevancy of her rule - she was likely to have been a local tribal leader and she spoke with authority in her decision making as Judge and in her discussions with Barak, the General in the army of Israel. As a prophet , it was considered that she spoke with wisdom and as a direct line from God. The people of...