Saturday, 14 November 2009

Celebrating women church leaders

Following my delight at the election of Margot Kässmann as chair of the EKD Council in Germany I tried over on my own blog to put together a list of national church leaders. I got some help from the comments section.
Here's the list so far ... perhaps we can add to it, but perhaps we also want to start thinking about what leadership may mean for women in the church - does it mean having to play the game of the structures in the same way as always. Reflecting about what womanly ways of leadership are and could be might be a good thread to develop here at some point.
But for now this is to note and celebrate teh women church leaders we do have. There are fortunately already quite a number women at regional levels of leadership around the world - bishops, moderators, regional presidents etc. - but very, very few at national levels of leadership. It is just starting to break through now and this does represent a huge change.
Here's my ammended list, do correct and add to it.

1) I was very proud when my own church, the United Reformed Church was the first in the UK to appoint a woman as head of the denomination. Roberta Rominger comes originally from the USA and she's been doing a really great and challenging job since she took over in 2008.

2) Sharon Watkins is the General Minister and President, and thus the leader of her denomination, the Disciples in the USA. She preached the sermon at the national prayer service following Barack Obama's inauguration.

3) Katharine Jefferts Schori has been presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA
since 2006 and has been involved in difficult church political issues.

4) Margot Kässmann was elected yesterday as the chairperson of the EKD Council in Germany.

5) Jana Jeruma-Grinberga was appointed as the presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church in great Britain.

6) Rosemarie Wenner is the main representative of the United Methodist Church in Germany. She is also the president of the Association of Protestant Free Churches (Vereinigung Evangelischer Freikirchen). I think, we can count her as a national church leader.

7) Judy Redman left a comment on my blog saying "I was very pleased when my denomination (the Uniting Church in Australia) elected a woman as its seventh national leader in 1994. Dr Jill Tabart was/is not only female but a layperson and she did an excellent job. However, we are now up to number 12, and Jill has been both the only woman and the only lay person. Of course, in our noticeably multicultural church, there has never been a non-Anglo president, so gender is not the only qualification."

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