Women Should Not Be Pastors

Women should not be pastors and guess who is working that out in growing numbers? Women themselves, as the ABC encouragingly reports,

“The Reverend Lynda McMinn has been a priest for 25 years. Much of that time has been spent in the Anglican Church’s historically progressive Canberra Goulburn diocese, which was among the first in the country to make women priests in 1992.

In that year, after decades of activism, equality advocates wept and cheered — a new era had begun.

But one year ago, McMinn stood up in her local synod — a meeting of the locally elected leadership and laity of the diocese, much like a parliament — to identify something that had been bothering her deeply: Instead of growing as expected, the number of women in ministry had dwindled in recent years. There were only three female rectors left (a three decade low), there were no female archdeacons, and few were rising in the ranks.

So, what had gone wrong?...

…“Hard won gains” had been lost.

The reason this report matters goes far beyond the bounds of any single parish, or diocese. It matters because, three decades after the first ordinations of women to the Anglican priesthood, women are still struggling to gain and maintain strong footholds on the rungs of leadership across the national church. Bishops are muttering amongst themselves, committees are being formed, heads scratched. The Melbourne Diocese considered quotas.

It also matters because a profound shift is occurring in some western countries — notably Australia and America — whereby for the first time since such a thing was ever measured, more young men are identifying as Christians than women. This shift has astonished demographers and historians alike, due to the fact that for centuries, if not millennia, the majority of people in church pews have been women. The leaders have been male, but the ranks of the faithful have been mostly female.

So, what’s going on? Where have the women gone? Or where are they going?

In July last year, after undertaking comprehensive research, including interviewing dozens of women in the diocese and analysing statistical patterns of women in leadership with data from the bishop’s office, McMinn and the Women in Leadership Working Group handed down their report. They concluded that the diocese had lost women from leadership because of deep, stubborn “cultural, theological and organisational barriers”. These included “attitudes that are patronising and hostile to women’s leadership” and “unrealistic expectations of clergy”.

What they found would not come as a surprise to women who have sought equality in other spheres, most especially parliament. The template of a good reverend has long been a man with built in (and of course free, or voluntary) domestic support, which has meant prospective female candidates have found themselves grilled about their at-home arrangements (and often found wanting, if single). Young women have looked at a future which appears incompatible with family life, and turned away.”[1]

Particularly take note of that last line, “Young women have looked at a future which appears incompatible with family life, and turned away.” Ain’t that the truth. The amount of men who would actually like to sit under their wives as the leader of their church is relatively few, they do exist, but they are a rare breed.

One of the worst things any single Christian woman can do who wants to be a wife and mother is seek a leadership position in a church. This is the opposite for men, men generally have no trouble finding a wonderful woman who wants to support them in their ministry. But, far more often than not, women do not find this same support is supplied, because it inverts the natural order among men and women, and even progressive men can sense this. Women in leadership positions often repel men, especially in churches, where many people still hold to biblical values.

The fact that progressive parishes in the Anglican Church (for Americans that is our version of the Episcopalian Church) are struggling to find women to lead their congregations is really encouraging. Because it shows that not only is this model unbiblical, it is simply unworkable. Husbands don’t want to submit to their wives, especially not in the church setting, at least not openly (many do quietly). Men in the main do not want to sit under such feminine leadership, nor do many women either. And more and more women are recognizing that to pursue this path will likely mean they lead a physically barren and lonely life.

The promises of feminism were many. The reality is far different to the promise though. Articles like this should encourage us. Women are turning more and more away from seeking professional ministry roles. And if history is any guide here, this will have no negative impact on their desire to be a part of the church. Because as the article notes the norm in history is that women have been fine with male headship in the church.

It is a hard job to fight against a culture, especially if the truth is not on your side. Up until recently the church was wise enough not to tell women that they should pursue this role, but now women are learning from bitter experience what once was just the assumed wisdom, a bishop should be a married man, who can manage his family and not a woman.

List of References

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[1] Julia Baird, 2025, The church’s disappearing women, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-09/the-church-s-disappearing-women/104910172?u&fbclid=IwY2xjawIWcNNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbH4FfS-X8d_OTQmwtbY1icfTd3fSxkKMBXrb_0RveHmoi1G0-DyTJ2EvA_aem_J7b7onDfFm3zxP8xUqmD_A