Role of women in the Mennonite church

[Mennogal]

I wasn’t aware you could “give up” a Ph.D.

May have meant giving up the career.

I know a man that was with a very large company and had a *very* large pension coming his way. he was a few years from retirement. Walked away from it all and joined EPMC, only to walk away from that ten years later. People do crazy things.

Yuppers... I gave away my significant 401K to join the Convent community.... didn’t work out either.

[temporal1]

I wasn’t aware you could “give up” a Ph.D.

May have meant giving up the career.

I know a man that was with a very large company and had a *very* large pension coming his way. he was a few years from retirement. Walked away from it all and joined EPMC, only to walk away from that ten years later. People do crazy things.

it would be marvelous if we were allowed 1-3 “do-overs” in life decisions.
after my husband passed, i decided moving to a smaller, less expensive home was for the best.
that was a terrible mistake, for several reasons, i will not bore with details.
there are various ways to make bad financial decisions.
after the fact, for me, i avoid thinking about it.

occasionally, i think, “what if?” ..
among possbilities, i have to be honest. sigh.

if i had not moved, i very likely would have lived in guilt+regret i did not move! -
not knowing the actual outcome, i would have felt greedy to stay where i was.
i’m pretty sure of that.

[JimFoxvog]

My experience is in MC-USA. There is an attempt at equality in many ways. There are female pastors, elders, and teachers of adult Sunday School. Still, it's not uncommon for a male pastor's unpaid wife to be an assistant to him in many ways. There is segregation at times in some congregations. Women do more of the cooking, and men more of the maintenance.

[Mennogal]

My experience is in MC-USA. There is an attempt at equality in many ways. There are female pastors, elders, and teachers of adult Sunday School. Still, it's not uncommon for a male pastor's unpaid wife to be an assistant to him in many ways. There is segregation at times in some congregations. Women do more of the cooking, and men more of the maintenance.

thanks, this is more of what IO am looking for, the role of women at church....

[francis]

My experience is in MC-USA. There is an attempt at equality in many ways. There are female pastors, elders, and teachers of adult Sunday School. Still, it's not uncommon for a male pastor's unpaid wife to be an assistant to him in many ways. There is segregation at times in some congregations. Women do more of the cooking, and men more of the maintenance.

thanks, this is more of what IO am looking for, the role of women at church....

A lot of it depends on the church, but many have their sermons and entire church services online. I know that Weavertown (Beachy, in Lancaster co Pennsylvania,) has its sermons online. Their church leaders are all men, even the choir director (I believe; many of their choir recordings are of visiting choirs,) although most choirs include female members. Some old order and beachy churches will choose pastors by lot, and thus no woman would ever be selected. However, in the beachy church I attend, there is very little male leadership and the women have taken over de facto leadership and generally keep the church going. But this is largely an exception. I think only the more modern churches would let a woman preach, but unofficial leadership can be more flexible.

[appleman2006]

Let me try and give you what a woman's role would be in the moderate conservative setting that I am from. Again I cannot speak for all churches even within the moderate setting but only for our immediate group.
I would say that compared to many conservative Mennonite churches our church has a higher than usual woman involvement in church.
While we would only ordain men for actual leadership the pastor's wife would also play a huge role in supporting that leadership. She becomes a mentor to other women in the church and would be very involved in one on one discussion with other members of the church especially ladies.
Our adult Sunday School classes are usually separate but even on the rare occasion when they are mixed women speak out and contribute in discussion. When classes are separate they will teach women's and children's classes and have very active discussion times. For our mixed small group Wed. evening studies they are very actively involved in discussion and will often be assigned to lead out in a time of singing.
It is not uncommon for them to have a part in our more informal Sunday evening services. Perhaps not a teaching type topic but often will be asked to speak on topics that involve a more of a testimonial approach.
At congregational meetings (we do not have brotherhood meetings where only the men are present unless it would actually be a topic that would only apply to men which in 15 years I can only remember happening once) their input is actively encouraged. Their vote is equal to any man on any decision making process. They actively sit on many committees including a church building committee we had some time ago.
I am not saying that we have found the perfect compromise in women's roles in the church. I am quite comfortable that our approach takes into account the Bible's emphatic teaching that men and women are equal in importance before God while at the same time recognising that when it comes to outright leadership roles the men are to take the lead. It is apparent by the amount of single women in our group, many of them professional and very strong women, that they feel comfortable with the way we do things.
And I believe our group is stronger because of the women being so actively involved in many areas.

[Joy]

Let me try and give you what ... would be in the moderate conservative setting that I am from. Again I cannot speak for all churches even within the moderate setting but only for our immediate group.

Good rule of thumb!!

[Hats Off]

This is a good list. But you'll soon discover things vary widely from church to church and even from family to family. I found that EPMC women didn't have near the freedoms that others did (#11). And I would say many of your Charity circles would be that way as well. The whole "barefoot and pregnant" often becomes a reality in those groups!

Women's role in our Old Order Mennonite church is as follows:
1) Women do not teach, or otherwise take part in the service other than to help with singing.
2) Women do take part in church counsel meetings where they are free to express themselves to the leadership.
3) Women do share their thoughts with each other and their husbands.
4) At home women are subject to their husband but do take a lead role in child training and home economics.
5) Married women very seldom work outside of the home although they do volunteer at thrift shops, etc.
6) Many women do have some home based business such as quilting, gardening for profit, running a store from the home, etc.
7) Women do make many of their own decisions. My wife goes shopping or to the doctor or visiting the children when it suits her. We may discuss these things a bit - do I need anything in town while she is there, etc.
8) I would not go church hopping or shopping without involving her.
9) Our single daughters make their own decisions about things like buying a home or selling a home, although they will still run it by us or their brothers.
10) They are not slaves or housebound or highly restricted in their movements or thoughts.
11) They are people with most of the rights and freedoms their husbands have.
At least that is the way I look at it - I did not ask my wife if this is 100% correct.

I am well aware that i speak only for our old order Mennonite practices. I read Karen Johnson Weiner's article in MQR when it was first published.

[steve-in-kville]

In our church, being mid-stream Church of the Brethren:

All our ministers are men.
All our adult Sunday school teachers are men.
Most of our children Sunday school teachers are women.
We do have women choristers.
We have numerous committees, and most are a mix on both men and women.

This being said, our congregation has many women who would be considered "professionals" in their careers: accountants, realtors, RN's, and other healthcare fields. But many are simply homemakers as well.

You could say we are pretty diverse!