Position · 1987

Egalitarianism

The view that women and men share equally in leadership and authority in the church and in marriage, so every ministry, including pastor and bishop, is open to women.

Egalitarians read passages such as Galatians 3:28 as a governing principle and point to women leaders in the New Testament, such as Phoebe and Junia. They read the restrictive texts in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy as addressing particular local problems. In evangelical circles the view was organised through Christians for Biblical Equality, founded in 1987.

Many mainline Protestant churches and some Pentecostal and Methodist bodies ordain women, but practice is divided within most Protestant families. Complementarian critics answer that the restrictive texts ground their rule in creation order, not in local circumstances.