Ordaining women to offices of minister, bishop, elder, pastor, etc.

[Ernie]

And how do you explain the verses about keeping silence, asking their husbands at home, and not teaching?

I could give a verse-by-verse understanding of why the Scriptures you reference do not, in my mind, prohibit women from serving in ministry. But I believe that we each bring assumptions and frameworks for understanding Scripture. In my view, it is a hermeneutical approach that leads to different understandings of the relevant verses to women in ministry.

Testing our hermeneutics with Scripture would be a more interesting conversation for me. The challenge is that we often use hermeneutics without thinking about them so it can be difficult to articulate. I think these questions are important, but I am not sure this forum is the best place for this kind of conversation.

The Fundamentalist will say the surface reading of scripture is timeless, silent means silent. The progressive will say most of this was written for specific situations in the first century that no longer exist so it should be ignored.

Cooper, does Barnhart's assessment describe your general thoughts about how to read the scriptures being referenced in this thread, or do you think that the teachings are intended to communicate something different than what I would consider a straightforward reading of these scriptures?

P.S. Whenever you have time, I would be glad to read your verse-by-verse understanding.

[Esdras]

This is a very interesting topic and one dear to my heart, as I believe Dordrecht makes mention of deaconesses, despite the Apostle Paul having a word he could’ve used (diakonissa) that was omitted.

Is there consensus among the Beachy Amish and Conservative Mennonites for the non-ordination of women?

For context, our family are headcovering seekers which would maintain the silence of women (and, by good and necessary consequence, the non-ordination of women) in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14. We would also interpret the prohibition of women teaching and usurping authority over men very broadly, as two distinct commands, to be upheld even outside of church. We wouldn’t consider ourselves as patriarchal as some of the folks in Moscow, Idaho (e.g. Doug Wilson and CREC), but the differences between their position and ours are sufficiently minute that any well meaning bystanders could be forgiven for getting our views and theirs mixed up.

I mention this because we’re actively looking for Anabaptists that either hold similar views, or are at least tolerant of us quietly holding our differences in loving tolerance.

[JohnH]

This is a very interesting topic and one dear to my heart, as I believe Dordrecht makes mention of deaconesses, despite the Apostle Paul having a word he could’ve used (diakonissa) that was omitted.

Those who subscribe to the Dordrecht Confession generally ignore its clause on deaconesses as an independent office.

Is there consensus among the Beachy Amish and Conservative Mennonites for the non-ordination of women?

Yes - they do not ordain women.

However, for all practical intents and purposes, a deacon, minister, or bishop who is ordained serves alongside his wife, who is basically "co-ordained" with him.

For context, our family are headcovering seekers which would maintain the silence of women (and, by good and necessary consequence, the non-ordination of women) in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14. We would also interpret the prohibition of women teaching and usurping authority over men very broadly, as two distinct commands, to be upheld even outside of church. We wouldn’t consider ourselves as patriarchal as some of the folks in Moscow, Idaho (e.g. Doug Wilson and CREC), but the differences between their position and ours are sufficiently minute that any well meaning bystanders could be forgiven for getting our views and theirs mixed up.

Yes, the positions that conservative/plain Anabaptists have are very different from the typical conservative Reformed type of positions.

I mention this because we’re actively looking for Anabaptists that either hold similar views, or are at least tolerant of us quietly holding our differences in loving tolerance.

Most conservative/plain Anabaptists would expect women to be "silent in the churches", with exceptions for things like participating in Sunday school, teaching children's classes, or perhaps requesting a song number to be sung. In less-conservative groups sometimes a woman might get up and give a trip/mission report or a testimony, but usually not as part of a regular worship service. In more conservative groups you won't hear a woman speak at all (and they would not have Sunday school either).

[Esdras]

Most conservative/plain Anabaptists would expect women to be "silent in the churches", with exceptions for things like participating in Sunday school, teaching children's classes, or perhaps requesting a song number to be sung. In less-conservative groups sometimes a woman might get up and give a trip/mission report or a testimony, but usually not as part of a regular worship service. In more conservative groups you won't hear a woman speak at all (and they would not have Sunday school either).

How interesting! If you’d permit one follow up question, what is the position among conservative Anabaptists on female missionaries being sent out into the field unaccompanied/unmarried?

[JohnH]

How interesting! If you’d permit one follow up question, what is the position among conservative Anabaptists on female missionaries being sent out into the field unaccompanied/unmarried?

The more conservative / traditionalist Anabaptist groups (which is, by far, the majority of them, such as Old Order Mennonites, Old Order Amish, and so on), do not commission or send missionaries at all. If they want to go to a new area 1 or 2 families simply moves to the area and then eventually more families move in and they start having church services.

Less-conservative groups who have been influenced by modernism and fundamentalism from non-Anabaptist sources will tend to do things such as organise mission boards and mission societies, conduct revival meetings, hold prayer meetings, meet for Sunday school, conduct vacation Bible school, and so forth. These would tend to commission a family or married couple as a missionary. They might send a single woman to go be a teacher for a missionary family. Rarely, they might send a single man by himself, but this is not the norm.

In the least conservative groups that are still visibly plain / conservative, people will go to missions that are non-Anabaptist missions and often single men or women can go do such things.