wfn.org | Church of Pakistan ordains women deacons, despite court challenge

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Note #6310 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

19-December-2000
00454

Church of Pakistan ordains women deacons, despite court challenge

Breakaway church goes to court to halt "apostasy"

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International

NEW DELHI -- 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."

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