The Sunday Mail
Continued from last week
IN order to understand the role of gender in Christian service, it is important to note the gender composition of the body of Christ, and also the key areas of service that the church is involved in. It was reported that a typical US congregation draws an adult crowd that is 61 percent female and 39 percent male.
This is true across all age groups (“U.S. Congregational Life Survey – Key Findings,” 29 October 2003).
While there is a paucity of data on the gender composition in African churches, one can conclude that the gender composition of congregants in the Evangelical Churches in Africa is also skewed in much favour of women, yet the reverse is true for its leadership. Generally, church congregants are skewed towards females.
The two most common roles of the church are counselling and compassion. And for today’s church in Africa, these two roles are quite crucial, especially in the areas of marriage and HIV and Aids caring, a scourge that has devastated the African continent which houses 33 percent of the world’s population yet carrying 71 percent of the people living with HIV and AIDS in the world.
Let me, by way of these two examples, briefly demonstrate that there is need to have a proportionate representation of men and women in all strata of church hierarchy.
Pastoral positions are generally filled by men. Consider a married woman approaching a male pastor requesting him to advise her on what she can do with her husband who has refused her intimacy for the past six months.
You can also consider a married man approaching a female pastor seeking advice on what he can do with his wife who has refused him sexual intimacy for the past six months.
Although both pastors might know that these are common problems within marriages, it is highly probable that they would have one or a combination of the following attitudes and responses: that the congregant is posing a personal temptation to them, it is also possible that a solution that involves the pastor might be proffered, or the pastor might simply remark that the problem is beyond his or her scope of expertise and refer the congregant to the next person. It is also possible that the congregant would not even approach a pastor of the opposite sex with such a problem, thus keep groaning under the stress of such a malady for fear of being labelled a slut, thereby further jeopardising the marriage.
The HIV and AIDS scourge has necessitated home based care. Most home-based carers are female. Now consider this hypothetical report to the husband of a female home based carer who has come home at dusk having spent the whole day caring for another seriously ill male congregant:
“Dad, I could have come home at about four o’clock, but the situation was really bad. Each time I was about to leave Mr Jays bedroom, he would shout that he needed some help getting his clothes changed as he would have messed them up. This happened six times. I do not even feel like cooking, I am tired.”
Perhaps there are home-based care groups that are dominated by males. Now consider this remark from a male home-based carer to his wife:
“Tom’s mother, (as African men often address their wives), you can’t believe what we have experienced today. You heard that Mrs Kay is seriously ill. When we got into her bedroom she was lying flat in her mess, undressed and bleeding. As soon as she noticed that there were people in her room she asked for a bath. Thank God we had gloves on, and there was water in a bucket in the room. We had to clean her up. I thank God we left her smiling.”
In both situations, the following can be concluded – there are areas that can best be handled by same sex Christians.
A gender insensitive composition in church service leaves a huge gap.
Thus, efforts must be made to have a proportionate number of males and females at the different levels of church hierarchy.
Bishop Mhloyi is the leader of Revival United Church of Christ International. Feedback: [email protected]
