Why can't women preach?
Taking inspiration from modern excavations into keeping women out of the pulpit and power.
Researching and thinking about a woman’s voice in the 6th Century in a church I no longer participate in feels a bit overwhelming sometimes. Growing up Roman Catholic I had my own encounters with the nonsensical role designation of women and girls—I just wanted to ring the bells as an alter boy. What on earth did that have to do with my genitals? And if one more person blames Eve I will explode… but we know that our modern versions of things aren’t as they always were.
We know there were powerful women.
We know a lot has been edited and erased.
We know that the pagan cultures of the UK and Ireland had very significant places for the feminine participation in the divine (even as the divine).
We know the Irish version of the Catholic Church was different than what was happening on the continent in many ways—including the pace at which they diminished women from importance in christianity.
But constructing the micro aggressions and significant events of a daily life that was working to displace women in the church is difficult. Lately I have found a contemporary source of inspiration from historian and author
. Barr is doing religious excavation about the powerful roles that women held in the church throughout history and the recent work of her church, the Southern Baptist Convention, to erase them, again.
She and partner Savannah Locke in their podcast series All the Buried Women “are bringing to light the experiences of women silenced by their own denomination and the systemic forces that enabled their marginalization.” It is a forensic accounting of the individual acts of erasure that have occurred in the SBC. It’s important and fascinating and a reminder of how these same ideas and techniques have occurred over and over again to put women in place within christianity.
That title, All the Buried Women, really tugs on my heart. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to listening.