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Presenter: Ella Simmons
Location: Internet
Delivery: 2007-09-28 21:55Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2007-09-28 21:55Z
Type: E-mail reply
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/rar/sim-reaustatement.php
From: Simmons, Ella
To: Larry Kirkpatrick
Date: Sep 28, 2007 2:16 PM
Subject: RE: Your Australia Statement Regarding Women in Ministry
Dear Pastor Kirkpatrick,
There was more in the interpretation of my Australian statement than there was in its presentation. I was not asked and did not state any position-that of the world church, nor my personal opinion-regarding the ordination of women. At some point it may become necessary. However, this was not the occasion to speak about ordination directly or indirectly. This was not part of that interview. Moreover, the interview was not rehearsed or staged with prestructured responses to a given set of questions. Rather, it was a spontaneous interview, though not significantly different from many others.
On this note, I should clarify a specific point. The “pause” to which some took exception was simply my search for thoughts in terms of accuracy regarding the manner in which I am received and what I have observed with other women who serve in leadership positions in our church. It was a brief reflection of the landscape over which I have traveled.
My intent was to celebrate women in their work of service in the church and to praise our church for supporting them. Someone has just shared information with me that helps me understand why my references to “women in leadership” were translated to mean and/or include the ordination of women. This has to do with how the use of language has evolved over the years on this topic.
These conversations made me wonder if all conversations about the roles, functions, ministries, and services performed by women in the church are interpreted as or even lead to debates over their legitimacy. This exchange brought me back to awareness that there are still questions to answer and issues to resolve regarding women’s roles in leadership in the church. Yet, there must be opportunities and appropriate language through which we can acknowledge the many valuable contributions of women in the church and throughout society from their various roles. There must be ways we can value and support these women along with men who have answered God’s call and the invitations of the church and community to serve. Certainly there should be no expectation for silence regarding women who are giving their gifts, talents, and energies in response to the Great Commission through leadership.
I have found on all continents women in leadership at various levels of the church, and since you raise the question/issue, yes as pastors by invitation of their local churches, conferences, unions, or divisions, although that was not my emphasis in the interview statement. None of these women, while supported and sanctioned in their leadership roles, are not ordained, and appear not to be engaged in any crusade for ordination. This is quite a different issue. Again, my observations are that women are being accepted at all levels in the church in their ministry and service. I add for emphasis here that they are doing their work without designations such as ordination.
This does not mean that women have or will serve in all roles in all places. But where they have been invited to serve it appears that they are supported in their work. I am well received throughout the world, but am not ordained and neither I nor those who receive and support me in my work have made ordination an issue. This was my mental context, and as far as I knew it was the context of the questions and interview.
Our church has a history of women in leadership in formally and informally sanctioned roles. To my knowledge none of these have been ordained, including Ellen White, yet I count her and these others as leaders in the church. I focused on leadership in its general and widely accepted definition, and did not use the term as a code word for ordination or a connection to it. While the ordination issue is quite different and a is legitimate conversation on its own, we need to be able to use the leadership language in relation to women in leadership service without being taken to a place we are not going, without an assumption of the ordination issue.
Thank you for caring enough to communicate. I appreciate the questions coming to me in a healthy exchange. Perhaps this will bring some clarity to the situation. It is offered for that purpose, clarity. It is about my integrity, not about any position or issue of debate.
This is not a formally structured position paper; nevertheless, you have my permission to share this response with others.
May God continue to bless you in your ministry. Have a joyous and restful Sabbath.
Sincerely,
Ella Smith Simmons, EdD
General Vice PresidentGeneral Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
[Note: This e-mail reply is shared on the internet with the permission of GVP Simmons, and we thank her.] GCO
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