It’s tempting to think that the Holy Spirit has been slow in leading the people of our church into the shared leadership of women and men. Don’t blame the Holy Spirit! Women have been leaders since the beginning of the church. And even when called and elected leadership was denied women, women were still leaders in the church, whether the men or the institutional church fully understood this.
God has been calling from tomorrow for hundreds of years (at least!), calling women into leadership. At first, few were listening, especially within the institutional church. Now those ancient schemes of white-male-dominated leadership in the church are being broken, here and around the world. We have dreamt of a day when the full leadership potential of all–-regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender, skin color, physical ability-–is recognized within the church. And we are closer now than we’ve ever been before.
There have been some bold new decisions in our lifetimes, but more await us.
This message is excerpted from “You call from tomorrow” by Linda Post Bushkofsky in the October issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember Martin Luther, renewer of the church, who died in 1546. We also observe President’s Day.
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