In The Mistakes We Make with Priestly Vocations, Fr. Philip N. Powell discusses something new in the Roman Catholic church, women serving in the place of pastors, not as pastors, but “Parish Life Coordinators.” Fr. Powell makes some wonderful points that are well worth considering.
The primary scripture used to bar women from leadership positions in the church is in 1 Tim 2:11-15. When one looks through the scriptures, one does find women in leadership. I will say, however, as did some women on the ordination trail in the Church of the Nazarene (whom I had the pleasure to converse and learn with recently), that is NOT ideal (yes, even these women said, actually more forcefully than the men). The ideal is Godly men should be the leaders of the church, as they are supposed to be in families.
However, the issue is that men are drawn to other things, and increasingly so. Fr. Powell is most likely correct that the PLC system will exacerbate the issue. He is also correct that it is only by prayer will all the empty roles be filled.
That was really quite fascinating. I didn’t know that The Church was “experimenting” with female lay ministers.
But you want to know what I took away from all of that? “Sacrament Machines” would be a killer band name.