Topic

Women in Ministry

Whether women may be ordained or hold the highest teaching and leadership roles in the church, and how Scripture’s passages on men and women in church and home should be read.

On one side, Egalitarianism holds that all roles are open to women and men alike. On the other, Complementarianism holds that men and women are equal in worth but that elder or pastoral leadership is reserved for men. The Catholic and Orthodox Male Priesthood reaches a similar practical result by a different, sacramental argument.

The debate runs through many Protestant bodies rather than between them. The Anglican Church of England began ordaining women priests in 1994, while for Catholics Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) declared the question closed.