Adventists Delay Decision on Ordination of Women

Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a denomination that considers the writings of co-founder Ellen White to be inspired, have decided to postpone voting on whether women should be ordained as ministers for at least another three years.

The Adventists’ Spring Council meeting in Washington, D.C., Thursday accepted the unanimous recommendation of its special commission on women’s ordination “to take no definitive action at this time” and establish a biblical study group. It had been expected that the subject would be debated during the worldwide church’s meeting this summer in New Orleans.

The 66-member ordination commission, which included 15 women, was about evenly divided in a straw vote taken last week on whether to proceed toward admitting women into ministerial ranks, said Lowell Bock, one of six vice presidents of the denomination.

“The church in that kind of split doesn’t dare move ahead--not unless we have a good majority,” Bock said. One often-repeated concern has been that the idea of women ministers troubles many overseas churches. Only 670,000 of the church’s 4.3 million members live in North America.

Less Than 50% Support

In addition, a survey of North American church members recently showed that only 36% of the males and 30% of the females favored women’s ordination. “The rank and file of the church isn’t even halfway there yet,” Bock said.

The independent Assn. of Adventist Women and other backers of the change had been pointing toward the June 27-July 6 General Conference session in New Orleans for open debate and voting on the matter. But commission members said they were uncertain about biblical justification for women’s ordination and recommended that a new study be finished by 1988.

The Spring Council ruled out women’s ordination for serious debate in New Orleans. A spokeswoman said the decision on ordination will probably be made by the Annual Council, a policy-making body of nearly 500 people, in the fall of 1988 or 1989. If the Annual Council approves ordination, the 1990 General Conference session would work out the details. General Conference sessions are held every five years.

Though the Saturday Sabbath-observing denomination was co-founded in the 19th Century by Ellen White, whom Adventists consider a prophet, the theologically conservative church has permitted only small numbers of women to serve in pastoral roles--and without the ordination usually granted after four years of service in church settings.

Ellen White Example

Adventist advocates of ordination said that church leaders of her day gave White a choice to be ordained. “Women should be given the same choice today,” asserted background material from the Assn. of Adventist Women, which has about 700 active members.

But because White also exercised great authority in the church, her example is often used to blunt arguments against giving women leadership positions in the denomination.

Women like Linda Gage, associate pastor of Glendale Seventh-day Adventist Church, performs most ministerial functions except baptism and marriage.

“I’m disappointed. I feel that it’s a loss for the church, but it will happen eventually,” Gage said. “The younger women will be disappointed especially.”

Doors Opened in 1974 and 1975

Adventists opened the seminary doors for women to study for the ministry in 1974 and 1975. “Unfortunately,” Bock said, “we have a situation where these girls who were called to the ministry have to wait.”

He said some commission members believe that an in-depth study on what the Bible says is pertinent to women’s ordination should have been done earlier.

Liberal-to-moderate Protestant churches generally ordain women to the ministry whereas doctrinally conservative bodies do not. Most church bodies completed study and debate on the issue during the 1970s and early 1980s.

The Adventist commission on women’s ordination also recommended that immediate steps be taken to employ more women in church administrative positions at the world headquarters in Washington as well as in regional offices. Shirley Burton, who last month became news director for the denomination in Washington after serving in a comparable post for the five-state regional church headquarters in Thousand Oaks, said there are no women department heads in the larger church.

When husbands and wives serve in team ministries, the commission also recommended that the wife--as well as the husband--be given a salary.