Page 4 - Moravian Messenger Oct 2020

Courage calls to Courage everywhere continued
From this point on the role of sisters in Church Service again began to be grappled with. Between 1745 and 1760, 200 women were ordained deaconesses under Zinzendorf's leadership and they were mainly responsible for the ministry and work of the sisters' choirs. However even at this time, women generally did not preach in Church and while this is something that Zinzendorf would later come to express regret for, the practice of these ordinations stopped after his death in 1760. By the beginning of the twentieth century, sisters could be found in many areas of church service but the idea of a woman in the pulpit or pastoral charge over male members of the congregation was initially incomprehensible. In 1925 a proposal came forward to Synod for the acceptance of suitable women candidates for the
Ministry. It did not pass, but instead it was referred for discussion at a local level, to return to the Synod in 1926. From that point it was continually deferred until 1943 when the conversation gained traction again, but lively debate continued at local levels and through correspondence in this very publication.
Lancashire District Conference held at Salem on 15th May 1943 recommended to the Provincial Board that Sr Douglas be placed on the Roll of Lay Preachers. Sr Douglas was welcomed as an assistant minister at Dukinfield that following September, and the District Conference called upon the Synod to appoint a committee in order to allow for a more positive approach to women in Church Service as ministers and missionaries.
A resolution did make it to the floor of Synod in 1944 when yet further discussion was called for in the districts. Overall, it appears that congregations were against the appointment of ministers. The Eastern District felt that they could welcome the occasional help of women in the pulpit, with Upton Manor being the only congregation that was unanimously in favour of full-time women ministers.
This resolve to maintain the status quo continued, despite the background of the Second World War, where there was a clear recognition of the role and capability of women in all areas of life. It must be said that there was a growing sentiment and recognition that women could of course carry out the role of a minister but the practicalities of having to balance both Church and her responsibilities in the home, meant there was the real risk of the female minister being a 'hinderance' to future of the Church!
However, it seems that momentum was being created. Sr Etheline Maud Gubi's name is listed on the Minister's board in Brockweir, having taken pastoral charge between 1949 and 1952. The Moravian Women's Association was founded in 1950 and it has since continually proven the force that can be created when sisters come together in fellowship.
At this point it is worth considering the view of the Unity. As a Church we are one of the few
denominations that has a worldwide legislative body, and by the 1950s the British Province set out to raise this question at the highest levels. In 1953, a report commissioned from the Unity found that only two Provinces had considered the issue of women in ministry at their synod: Britain and Suriname. The Board of the Northern American Province considered the decision to be one for each individual Province to make, and in principle it was 'desirable to maintain the longer established tradition of limiting the ordination in the Moravian Church to men and the governing bodies of all Provinces should be urged to adhere to this principle if possible.' The report concluded that in principle the ordination of women would be permissible.
From this point, the British Province Synod persisted and in 1956 made a recommendation to the Unity Synod that women as well as men, be eligible for ordination in the Moravian Church. In 1958, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Unity Synod affirmed the conclusions of the 1953 report, paving the way for the acceptance of women as candidates for ministry.
Back home, the debate did not end there, and indeed it took a further ten years for the conversation to truly develop and transform. Sr Janet Twine took to the Messenger in 1967 calling for us to once again consider the role of women: 'let us remember how the women who had followed Jesus we the first to receive the message of the risen Lord. But the
message was not just for them. They realised this, and felt impelled to share it.'
It was in 1968 that the Church Service Advisory Board published a report on the supply of ministry and the real concern at the reduced number of those entering training. Consideration was given to finally opening the door to ordination of women: suddenly the practical difficulties being experienced in the Church upended the view that women ministers could be a mere hindrance and there was a recognition that there had been a neglect for at least half of our ministry particularly in, as was noted, what was the 'vigorous' half.
It was felt that acceptance was still some ways off in the future and who would come forward? In July 1970, Br Paul Gubi and Sr Valerie Barker brought forward a proposal that women be accepted for the ordained ministry. The proposal was accepted and one month later Sr Emily Shaw wrote to the Provincial Board: 'I see the ordination of women as way to open to greater service those who feel called to do this work in a world which needs more of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in its midst, if ever men and women are to be happy.'
When Sr Shaw applied for the ministry, she had five years left before retirement and following her ordination she was called to serve congregations in a full-time capacity. It was with 'dismay' that the congregation of Woodford Halse heard of her call to
Sr Etheline Maud Gubi © Br Peter Gubi
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