Equality is not a word you associate with S.A.+unfortunately they seem slow to change this perception. Sexist attitudes still exist,espec. in the poorer areas where traditional cultural values sill hold an immense amount of weight. At COTT there’s some students from these areas,inc. a young woman who only ever wears skirts or dresses+a young man who said where he’s from they don’t know what to do with lesbians because their men are men+women are women+no-one knows what a lesbian is! The problem does not just lie there though+several S.A.’s from more affluent areas still hold several sexist views, E.G.it is not uncommon to hear men suggesting women are the only ones who do the cooking!
Fortunately the winds of change are beginning though. At COTT those in authority are certainly inclusive+do not appear to hold gender stereotypes, though the majority of staff are male+there's 45 men training for Ordination here+only 15 women. Furthermore,there’s no married women here whose husband have moved here too,though there’s several men here whose family have moved with them,which I expect is to do with outdated views that family moves with the man’s job rather than the woman’s. However,staff encourage use of inclusive language when reading the Bible. And,somewhat ahead of their time,staff use inclusive language when referring to God,I.E. no mention of Him or Father+instead Creator,Redeemer+Sustainer /Sanctifier. Nonetheless,women’s ministry is often referred to as if it’s still a new venture that they are only just coming to terms with. Praise the Lord things are changing,E.G. some diocese have sent women for the 1st time to train for ordination this year,inc. at COTT a young lady who’s the 1st female ordinand from Lesotho +the 1st female ordinands from Kimberley+Kuruman diocese.
Of even more interest on this subject are our classes on the Ethics of Sexuality. While arguments about God’s will for human sexuality are as present here as they are in the UK,the classes also incld. things that are basic knowledge in the UK about gender,sexuality+sex -though on refelction its prob. best to leave out details!
About Me
- George
- I’ve set up this site to keep those who are interested informed about how my stay in South Africa is going during January-April 2010.
I haven't caught up with your blog for a few days so have only just seen this post. One of the things that struck me most strongly was the disjoint between the inclusive language in worship, and the decidedly traditional gender roles. Further, some of the dioceses which now send women ordinands are doing so in a rather tokenistic way, I think, because it is the thing to be doing, rather than because of a real commitment to women's ministry. We had an extraordinary experience when I said to some students that i wanted to go to the monastery, and they went and asked David when it would be ok for me to go! Another time, I bought some tennis balls and someone went and thanked David for getting them, because it was clearly his money!
ReplyDeleteYes it is rather disjointed isnt it?!
ReplyDeleteFor a change I am trying not to be so cynical+so am hoping women's ordination is more of a token effort out here.However,even if not,at least they can have some fab women to do fab jobs+therefore hopefully change some minds.
As for those comments you got,I can imagine you were not best pleased! I know I would not be! So far no-one's said anything to horrendous to me,but there's always time yet!!
Definitely there are some fantastic women clergy and ordinands, but it varies so much from one diocese to another, and bishops there have SO much more power than ours do, that it depends a lot on the diocesan bishop.
ReplyDeleteAs to the comments, I think it was partly because David and I were there together (you should have seen the expressions when we disagreed in a seminar!!), and I was more amused than annoyed by it.
Yes the Bishops do appear to have a lot of power out here. And, I doubt not at all unrelated, a lot of people seem to want to be Bishops too!!
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