SDA (Adventist) Church: NO on ordaining women

[Janes Heir]

Quote

At approximately 6:15pm, on Wednesday, July 8, the answer was "no." Delegates of the 60th General Conference voted down the question, "Is it acceptable for division executive committees, as they may deem it appropriate in their territories, to make provision for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry?"

 

There were 2,363 total votes:

 

977 - Yes

No - 1,381

Abstain - 5.

 

Source: http://spectrummagazine.org/article/201 ... s-quo-prev (not breaking the link -- Spectrum is a pretty snarky place and shouldn't mind)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/soc ... story.html

A bit of a personal rant/opinion follows.

 

 

 

 

Women have served as pastors in many Adventist churches, especially in North America, for decades. Although the vote may appear to be one of semantics, as those of you on FJ know, defining and prescribing women's "roles" is central to the wider male headship movement. Something that may make those of us who consider ourselves progressives uncomfortable is the fact that much of the opposition to WO (women's ordination) comes from Africa. We don't want to be western-centric. However, the vote was not about forcing WO on areas where it would be a cultural anomaly; the vote was about allowing areas where women's contributions are culturally validated to choose to ordain qualified women. I know to many FJians -- including former SDAs, whose decision to leave I certainly respect -- it may seem ridiculous to be remaining connected to such a staunchly conservative denomination. (In previous days' meetings, church fundamental beliefs were reworded to more strongly identify with "traditional" marriage and literal, "recent" creation.) However, judging from the LGBT-affirming, feminist, theistic evolutionists on my SDA campus, there's still a chance for change.

@mods, maybe I should have posted this in WW of Snark. Move it if you choose.

Edited April 20, 2016 by OnceUponATime
adding tags

[Trynn]

No, it belongs here. I've been glued to my phone at work all day inventing a drinking game for the discussion.

I'm more upset than I should be since it doesn't affect me.

[Janes Heir]

Trynn, I know some of your experiences in the church have been very unjust and hurtful, and I'm sorry for you and any one experiencing more pain because of today's proceedings.

For anyone interested in the twitter reports, hashtags are #GCSA2015 and #MychurchToo

Spectrum magazine also gives a daily roundup of the best tweets.

Lastly, may I offer the balm of a little laughter: Emotional GC vote confirms horse and buggy as only Adventist transport

http://barelyadventist.com/emotional-gc ... transport/

(Again, Barely Adventist, a satire site, won't mind the link.)

[Trynn]

I'll post my drinking game tomorrow when I'm on a real computer. I wasn't actually drinking at work of course, but I wished I'd been able to stay home, live stream, and drink along.

I didn't know about the second hash tag.

Well, back to watching them squabble over wording in the church manual as I point and laugh from a distance.

Man I need a drink.... It is way too late at night to be drinking.

[Marmion]

Ironically enough , their founder , who they regard as having been a prophet , was a woman .  https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1989/02/did-ellen-white-support-the-ordination-of-women , http://www.adventisthistory.org/2013/11/21/early-adventists-ellen-g-white-and-the-ordination-of-women/  ,  https://equalordination.com/egw-on-women-ministers/ 

[feministxtian]

Women's ordination is coming up again in General Conference. My church is in deep stuff w/our local conference anyway as we have 2 ordained women on staff. Eventually it'll break, hopefully sooner rather than later.