Ten Years Later: Celebrating Women Priests in South Africa
by Wilma Jakobsen

Women priests came into focus at the recent synod of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in September 2002. Ten years ago in Swaziland, almost 80% of the CPSA synod delegates voted to ordain women as priests. Ten years later there are about 150 women priests ordained, who minister in all but five of the province’s twenty-two dioceses.

Members of the provincial synod celebrated this ten-year anniversary in several ways. One of the synod’s daily eucharists was a celebration service which focused on this monumental event in the life of the CPSA. The story of how the process had evolved over the preceding decades was told; more than half of the synod members had not been present ten years ago, and the memories of this effort should not be lost. It was an inspiration to many.

A resolution was brought to the synod by the bishop of a diocese which had until recently not supported the ordination of women. The resolution gave thanks to God for the ministry of ordained women in the CPSA in the past 10 years; acknowledged the failure of parts of the CPSA to promote, affirm and welcome women’s ministry; commended the women of the CPSA for organising a stimulating provincial women’s conference; and respectively requested the bishops, clergy and laypersons to actively work to strengthen the ministry of women in all dioceses of the CPSA.

People spoke favourably of their experiences with women priests and their significant contributions to the life of the CPSA. The resolution passed. However, some concerns and challenges were also raised in the debate.

It was noted that only five women priests were present at this synod. Someone… noted that there are very few women in positions of real leadership in the CPSA. All bishops and deans in the CPSA are male — the province is a long way from seeing women in those positions.

Clearly there is a long journey ahead towards full and meaningful leadership of women in the CPSA:

• The challenges of using inclusive language are before us.
• Others are concerned that women often become "community priests" or non-stipendiary priests, and are thereby used as cheap labor for the church.
• Yet others are rightly concerned about the issues of violence against women, which was reflected in another resolution that called the churches to action.
• Another resolution called for gender education at all levels of ministry in the church.

The challenges lay ahead of us. How is the church to be a place of mutual ministry where leadership is shared equally between men and women? How is the church to be open to the ministry of women in their sometimes different and often challenging ways?

We’ve come this far by faith… and in faith we continue onward. In the past 10 years we have seen many changes and there is much to celebrate. For instance, my Diocese of Cape Town began ordaining women in 1988, and we now have 25 women priests. In the CPSA, there is in much greater acceptance of our ministry than ten years ago. A few women now hold positions as archdeacons, canons and some as rectors of large parishes. But there is a long way to go! Women are not yet in the positions of real leadership and decision making in the CPSA, and we cannot afford to sink into tokenism.

So we celebrate and we strengthen our hearts and hands for the next decade. We look forward to seeing women who are deans and bishops. We wait and work for a church of mutuality and equality, where differences are celebrated and all who are gifted and called are engaged in ministry. A luta continua [the struggle continues]!

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published in Challenge, an ecumenical Christian social justice magazine produced in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Anglican Women Breaking the Silence

It was a historic moment — Anglican women from Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, younger and older women, students and community activists, women priests and leaders of women's organisations, gathered in Kempton Park from 12-16 May to boldly break the silence about women's issues in church and society, to bring women across the church spectrum together to dialogue and share their stories, and to strategise to mobilise women in their own dioceses to move forward.

Over a tea-break, one delegate was heard to say, "This is the most different conference I have ever attended!" A member of the steering committee tentatively asked, "Do you mean different as in good, or different that is not so good?" and the delegate replied "Different and very good!"

She sketched some areas where Anglican women need to break the silence: family, culture, leadership in church, education, and rape and abuse… She also challenged us to not shy away from difficult issues such as lurking racism from the bad old apartheid years.

The keynote speaker, Archdeacon Nangula Kathindi, general secretary of the Council of Churches in Namibia, set us on our path. Beginning with the story of her anguished experience from her visit to Angola, from where she had just arrived, she urged us to break the silence. She sketched some areas where Anglican women need to break the silence: family, culture, leadership in church, education, and rape and abuse. She challenged the group to remember that it was a group from southern Africa and not just South Africa. She also challenged us to not shy away from difficult issues such as lurking racism from the bad old apartheid years. Linking her speech with practical illustrations from her own life story, we found ourselves profoundly moved and inspired. This enabled us throughout that first day to tell our own stories as women in the church, stories both positive and negative, told in small groups. Later that day we heard a selection of stories from the groups, and realised that the conference had really begun by plunging us to the depths of our experiences and bonding us in the telling and listening of stories. Yes, this was a different conference.

The economic empowerment of women, the issues around women and HIV/AIDS, and abuse of women and children, now occupied our attention… The weight of the burden that women carry in society weighed us down. There is so much to be done.

But wait — there was more! From the start it was clear that it was not 'business as usual' and especially not worship as usual. With such a conference there were so many difficult and moving issues that were being raised in the sessions. A counseling team had been prepared to deal with those who needed to talk and pray about their experiences, and they ended up working overtime. The conference prayer chapel had been transformed into a creative and beautiful quiet place for prayer — creating small prayer spaces in the different corners, using cloth, candles, baskets, fire-red autumn leaves, dried grasses, crosses and stones.

Every morning I watched the sun rise through the window of the chapel, as I began my day in the powerful, beautiful quiet of that space. Each night I sat and watched women come to the chapel, light candles, and pray. At such a conference the liturgy and worship was an important way in which to hold the enormity of what we were doing together, to gather our minds and hearts at the beginning and end of each day. It was a way to integrate the burden of pain shared, the delight of insights gained, and to offer it all to God, our great Parent who holds and undergirds us as we struggle and rejoice at the difficulties and joys of life.

Each evening, as a start to the prayers, an opportunity was provided for the delegates to respond creatively to the day’s program and events. Quiet music was played, as the women took up different coloured pieces of paper and wrote their responses, or their feelings, or a prayer, or drew in koki pen or crayon. Others took up plasticine and play-dough and created small objects, a flower, a basket, a ball and chains. The creativity was astounding. During the offertory, these responses were gathered up in baskets and offered as part of the worship. Later the papers were displayed on the back wall in the form of a mosaic, which grew each day of the conference — a colourful mosaic once again showing our diversity yet our togetherness. Yes, it was a different conference.

Great care had been taken by the coordinating worship team to ensure that worship and liturgy was creative, multilingual and reflecting the diversity of the women present. The aim was to blend the beauty and strength of traditional Anglican worship with some newer and different prayers and liturgies which use different and enriching images, some of which were written about women, or by women. This was a new experience for many of the women present.

Many songs and hymns in different languages, some new songs written to familiar tunes, liturgical prayers in different languages, litanies of thanksgiving, litanies for healing from abuse, prayers relating to AIDS, particular prayers written by women for women, were gathered into a worship resource book. The worship each day was led by small groups of women from different dioceses who had volunteered to read, or lead prayers, or lead worship. They worked together to choose the various elements of each service, whether an eucharist or morning or evening prayer, ensuring cohesion and that different languages were used for the readings, prayers and music. Besides the traditional versions of Anglican stalwarts such as 'Hail gladdening light', 'Magnificat', 'Nunc Dimittis' and the 'Song of Zechariah' , there were possibilities of alternate versions of these to use, drawn from the Anglican Prayer Book of New Zealand. Other prayers by Janet Morley, the writer of alternate prayers, confessions, collects and blessings from the Church of England, were also used.

It seemed that many people appreciated the creativity of the worship and commented on it during the conference. It took a lot of hard work to enable it to happen, and a hard-working team to ensure that all went smoothly. Yes, it was a different conference.

The conference ended on a high note, with the delegates joining many others in St. Alban's Cathedral, Pretoria, for a eucharist celebrating ten years of ordination of women priests in the CPSA. The theme for the service was "Women breaking the silence: Celebration and Struggle." The service began with short stories of particular women struggling for ordination: the first ever Anglican woman priest, Florence Li Tin Oi in Hong Kong; Diana Nkesiga from Uganda (now in Port Elizabeth); Pam Wise from England; and Nancy Charton, who traced our own history of the journey to ordination in the CPSA. Ms. Sheena Duncan was the preacher and continued to remind us of our own history within the CPSA. It is not often that these stories and our history are told, and it was a privilege that many young women present enjoyed.

Many of the senior women clergy were there to lead us in worship, and the Archbishop concelebrated the eucharist with all the women priests present, together with the bishop and dean of Pretoria. It's not often that so many women clergy gather, and who knows when it will happen again! This was something to truly celebrate and remember!

So this conference was indeed a historic event in the life of the CPSA, and there is much rejoicing that it has actually taken place. The idea of it emerged many years ago, from the then-Provincial Executive Officer of the Anglican Church, now Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, and it took a long time to materialise, with many difficulties and challenges along the way. But happen it did, and the consequences will continue to ripple throughout the CPSA for a long time to come. Deo gracias.

The Rev. Wilma T. Jakobsen has served as Anglican chaplain at the University of Cape Town for the past decade, and is the incoming director of Liturgy & Justice at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. Wilma was a coordinator of the worship team for the conference described in this article. She may be reached by email at wtj@hotmail.com