Church of Pakistan ordains women
deacons, despite court challenge
Breakaway church with McIntire roots goes to court
to halt "apostasy"
by Anto Akkara, Ecumenical News International
NEW DELHI -- December 19, 2000 -- The Church of
Pakistan -- a partner church of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- has
made history by ordaining its first two women deacons, despite civil
court action by another church which believes that the Bible bans women
from the clergy.
The diaconate is the first step towards the
priesthood, and deacons have an important role in church liturgy and
ministry. The church is the first in Pakistan to open the ranks of
clergy to women. However, Christians are a tiny minority -- about 2
percent -- in this Islamic country of 140 million people.
The Church of Pakistan, which has about 800 000
members, is a united church inaugurated in 1970, bringing together
Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and other Protestants.
"We have gone ahead with what we believe is
right. We have made our commitment to it," Bishop Samuel Azariah,
moderator of the Church of Pakistan, told ENI after the ordinations on
Nov. 21 in his diocese of Raiwand, 25 kilometers north of Lahore.
One of the new deacons is the bishop's wife, Kushnud.
Both women deacons, along with two new male deacons ordained on the same
day, have been working for the church as catechists.
"None of the mainline churches have opposed this
though officially they may not agree with me 100 per cent on this,"
Bishop Azariah said. But he added that no one "can expect unanimity
on progressive steps," and that he was "sad that a McIntire
[breakaway] church has gone to the court against it."
The civil court action to try to block the ordinations
was initiated by a retired army major, Timotheus Nasir, who is
moderator-secretary of the United Presbyterian Church of Pakistan (UPCP),
a breakaway church in the Presbyterian tradition. He told ENI:
"Women's ordination is not authorized by the Bible."
Nasir said the UPCP "believes in biblical
theology, and we do not go along with modern theology." The UPCP
"will keep the fight on till the bishop repents and the court gives
him due punishment under the law."
The Bible contained "an executive order -- by the
Apostle Paul and duly confirmed by the Apostle Peter -- that women are
not allowed to speak in the church," Nasir said. "So we have
taken the bishop to court to prevent apostasy and heresy that are bound
to follow this." He claimed that "the radical feminist
movement, homosexuality and lesbianism -- all approved by World Council
of Churches -- are linked to this [women's ordination]."
The World Council of Churches, of which the Church of
Pakistan is a member, has not given any official approval to
homosexuality. Its member churches are divided on the issue, with some
accepting or considering accepting homosexuals into the clergy, but most
opposing such developments.
Nasir told ENI that a civil court in Lahore had issued
a "contempt of court" notice on Bishop Azariah for "going
ahead" with the ordinations. However, the bishop said that the UPCP
had filed the case in court after the ordinations took place. He had not
received any contempt of court notice. The case is due to come before
the court on Dec. 20.
Nasir said: "We want him [Bishop Azariah] to be
taken to task for violating the national law and biblical law. "The
UPCP was also mounting a media campaign on the issue and was ready to
take action in the high court on this 'serious' question."
But Bishop Azariah told ENI that Nasir and his
"fringe group of Christians" were "trying to mislead the
court. We have committed no contempt of court as the ordination took
place before the court intervened." He added that as yet there had
been no information provided on the legal or constitutional basis of
Nasir's challenge to the ordinations.
"The court has no jurisdiction on the
interpretation of the Scripture. The court is not the authority to tell
the church who is to be ordained and who is not to be ordained. There is
a clear mandate in the Bible for including women in the ministry of the
church."
Bishop Azariah said that Nasir should keep in mind the
"biblical advice that disputes within the church should be resolved
within the church and not in civil courts."
The women who had recently been ordained had in fact
been performing diaconal duties for a long time -- helping pastors to
manage funds and personnel, visiting the sick and planning church work,
the bishop said. "With the ordinations, we are only formally
recognizing their role in the church."
Asis Karam, a priest and youth director whose wife
Rohama is one of the new deacons, told ENI: "Our church is not
concerned about the [court] case. My congregation is extremely happy to
have both husband and wife to serve them." But he admitted that
"there are also those opposed to it" outside the Raiwand
diocese.
The diocese decided three years ago to open the
diaconate to women. However, the decision was implemented only after
seminars and meetings, as many people were "apprehensive about
it," Karam said. The opposition to women's ordination was, he said,
"basically from uneducated people. Gradually the opposition will
fade away when they realize how women can be efficient in church
ministry. This is definitely a step towards full ordination for
women."
Describing the entry of women into the diaconate
"for the first time" as "good and necessary," a
prominent Church of Pakistan official, Victor Azariah, who is related to
Bishop Azariah, said that "someone had to break the ice. Finally,
it has been done."
"The mainline churches have no objection to
it," said Victor Azariah, who is general secretary of the National
Council of Churches of Pakistan (NCCP), which groups the Church of
Pakistan, the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, the Salvation Army and
the Association of Reformed Presbyterian Churches. Between them they
account for nearly half of Pakistan's 3 million Christians.
When asked whether the church was embarrassed by the
controversy, Bishop Azariah replied that "conflicts among different
denominations are nothing new. It is there in every religion including
Islam and Hinduism."
But he said the controversy "does not give a good
image of Christianity" especially in an Islamic nation.
Interviewed by ENI, one of the new deacons, Kushnud
Azariah, said: "The church has taken a very bold step particularly
in our Islamic context in ordaining women. The gender barrier has been
broken."
She said her ordination was both a privilege and a
challenge. "Being the first women, it [future ordinations of women]
will depend on how we play our role in church and society. We need to be
very careful. If we make even little mistakes, it will jeopardize the
future of the entire [community of Christian] women."
