Women and leadership

Yesterday I put as a status update on my facebook page "Had some interesting conversations about the leadership of women at work today. A long way to go..."
It generated more conversations on the same subject today ... not entirely surprising given recent events.

From 27-29 October the Evangelical Church in Germany will meet in Ulm to elect a new chairperson of the EKD Council, Bishop Wolfgang Huber is retiring. Some people seem to expect that Bishop Margot Kässmann will be elected as his successor. Personally I very much hope this is the case but I wonder whether it will really happen. A life time in politics has told me electorates are not always to be trusted.

For me being a woman in ministry it is important not only to encourage women to discover and fulfil their leadership potential at all levels, we also need to be able to point to women who can serve as role models for us. I think knowing that there is a diversity of leadership at the upper levels of churches and organisations, helps us to work for that same diversity of shared leadership at the grassroots and intermediate levels.

There are some interesting posts here and here on the CPAS women in leadership blog.

Working for change on the area of women and leadership is a long hard slog. I give thanks for the pioneering work of women in our own traditions and am very proud to share that 1917 date of the first ordination of a woman to the word and sacrament. However, the Daughters of Dissent project showed us just how painful and sometimes long the wait for recognition of women's ministry at all levels of the church has been. What I realise now is that, just like democracy, so also with the recognition of the gifts of all God's people, this needs to be worked at at all levels and at all times. Ah yes, and sometimes we get tired.

Listen again to Janet Wootton on Payer for the Day

Not sure how many of you are up early enough in the morning to listen to Prayer for the Day but Janet Wootton is doing the Radio 4 early morning slot this week and you can listen again here.
Living in France means I get to hear it an hour later into my day. Anyway Janet's reflections are well worth a listen and reflect on powerful bits of non-conformist women's history too. Good stuff.