Women and the Church

Maude Royden, Elsie Chamberlain, Isabella Gilmore, Betty Ridley, Una Kroll, Christian Howard, Monica Furlong, Joyce Bennett, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Constance Coltman, Margaret Webster.

Have you heard of any of them? I found out about these women through the website of Women and the Church (or WATCH) who point out that though they were all icons in the campaign to get women ordained, as with many women’s lives, they are in the ‘hidden gallery’ of history.

To give you a very brief flavour of some of their stories: "Elsie Chamberlain was the first female full chaplain in the RAF; Una Kroll famously shouted, ‘We asked for bread and you gave us a stone’ (a reference to Matthew 7. 7-11) when in 1978 the General Synod refused to allow women to be ordained, creating the momentum for the Movement for the Ordination of Women to be formed; and Florence Li Tim-Oi was the first female Anglican priest, ordained during the war to serve behind Japanese lines in China."

WATCH argue that, although women have been a majority in the church, they have mostly been hidden in the background, carrying out children’s work, making tea, cleaning, in the office, caring for neighbours, letting the vicar know when someone needs a visit. In other words, fulfilling the sort of role that Martha was playing in our Gospel reading (Luke 10. 38-end) today.

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater then receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them. So, Jesus’ words to Martha are not a denigration of the role she is fulfilling, which has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture, but point instead to an alternative role which has led to the point that we have currently reached in the Church of England of seeking to ordain women, not just as priests, but as bishops.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. This was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirms Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently puts people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes.

This sense of the equality of men and women in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church, has inspired women throughout Church history to active service of our Lord and to leadership roles within his Church. Including the many women whose ministries we celebrate and remember in relation to the history of St Margaret's Barking.

The example of commitment to Christ, despite mockery, torture, and martyrdom, which is found in the story of St Margaret of Antioch led to her becoming one of the most popular saints among the laity in medieval England with more than 250 churches dedicated to her. Many churches housed side altars or images of St Margaret and had guilds dedicated to her. Her story also became one of the most common subjects for wall paintings in England.

St Ethelburga was the first Abbess of Barking Abbey and epitomises a strong woman who exemplifies the virtues of committed social action and self-sacrifice. She is especially noted for her heroic conduct in caring for the sick during an outbreak of the plague in 664 which eventually killed her and most of her community. During this time she is said to have had a vision of a light "brighter than the sun at noonday" which inspired her and her community to works of great compassion in caring for others. The Venerable Bede wrote of her: "her life is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her, when she departed this world."

We can rightly add to that list, of inspiring women associated with this church, Pat Nappin; who was the first woman Honorary Secretary of the Central Reader’s Council of the Church of England appointed in recognition of her vision and commitment which enabled her to see through a number of significant developments in Reader ministry.

These, and other women (including those named by WATCH), are examples to all of us of what real commitment to Christ entails and involves. This is particularly so because current campaign to see women take their place alongside men as bishops and at every level in the Church of England is not about women gaining an ascendency which men have had in the past but, instead, is about the full equality of women and men in the Church as part of God's will for his people, and as a reflection of the inclusive heart of the Christian scripture and tradition.

Mary shows all of us the importance of making Jesus the central focus of our life and learning. Martha shows us all the value of welcome, hospitality and service. Margaret, the ability to remain true to Jesus despite great opposition and personal suffering. Ethelburga, the inspiration of sacrificial leadership in times of crisis and need. Pat, of the vision needed to bring about significant change and development.

The ministries of each one of us can be enhanced by reflecting on the examples that each one provides and through that the recognition that the saints are not special, super-human people but: sisters, like Martha and Mary, who become frustrated with each other’s choices; a daughter, like Margaret, in conflict with her father; a sister, like Ethelburga, given prominence as a result of family favours; and a Reader with a national role, like Pat, who continues to immerse herself in local ministry.

What we see through their lives and examples is that each one of us are saints; whatever our gender and ministry, its prominence or hiddenness. The only saints to feature in the New Testament are each and every member of local church. The saints are simply those who are church members whether in Ephesus, in Jerusalem, in Rome, or wherever including, today, those of you here in Barking.

A Patronal Festival is a time to reflect on the example of the Patron Saint of this church but only as inspiration to live as saints ourselves. Current developments in the Church of England, our Gospel reading for today, and the significant ministries exercised by women associated with this church have all led to my focus today on the ministry of women but, again, only as a inspiration to us all to work towards and work within the full equality of women and men in the Church that sees us all as being saints.

So, to you the saints in Barking, the faithful in Christ Jesus: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

(Sermon preached at St Margaret's Barking for the Festival of St Margaret).

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Laurent Mignard Duke Orchestra - Something 'bout believing.