Women's Ministries according to
the Christian Scriptures, 30-150 C.E.

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Course Description

Leadership in the Jesus Movement, as instituted by Jesus Christ, has developed in many ways during the long history of the Church. What was Jesus' original vision? What practices go back to the first century?

As always, the Church is being nourished and challenged by going back to its sources. Small wonder that theological scholars in our own times are re-examining the data provided by the inspired Scriptures. In particular, modern scholarship focuses on the position of Christian women. What functions and ministries, if any, were open to them? How did their participation provide an outreach and a charism that was unique to them as women?

This course offers participants an in-depth examination of the contemporary discussion of key texts and of the academic findings. This course includes eight required Friday chatroom sessions of 90 minutes each (details below).

This course was artfully designed by Dr. Aaron Milavec, who is a strong communicator with a compelling gift of bringing biblical studies to bear upon pastoral issues. 

Objectives of the course

• to enlarge your familiarity with the key texts and academic discussion concerning leadership functions and ministries being exercised by women as seen within the Sacred Scriptures and other early texts;
• to be able to give voice to those positive indications that favour (a) the full participation of women in the Way of Life revealed by Jesus and (b) the inclusion of women in the recruiting, teaching, and healing ministries;
• to gain a professional grasp of the correct rules of scriptural interpretation within the historical and cultural context of the first century.

Outline of Lessons

	1. When Jesus favored the women The purpose of this initial Case Study is to develop insights regarding Jesus' interaction with women set against the backdrop of the cultural norms prevailing within his society. From these insights, one will be better equipped to gauge not just one or the other issue regarding women, but to discern something of the abiding and prophetic witness of the Gospels which brings "good news" to women--in the first-century, today, and tomorrow.
	2. Taking stock of the ‘for-men-only’ interpretation This lesson will give particular attention to how the argument against the ordination of women is handled in the Roman Catholic Church. Needless to say, the arguments circulating within Catholic circles affect other Christian Churches, because, even in churches ordaining women, one encounters residual resistance on both the historical, theological, and biblical grounds.
	3. Was Jesus influenced by the Jewish male-only priesthood? Since we are dealing with sources for understanding why the Catholic Church has had a male-only priesthood, we need to explore the possibility that Jesus, being a Jew, took this idea over from his Judaism.
	4. No church leadership for women according to Sacred Scripture? Having come this far, it's time to find out what other scholars are saying. Decide upon one article that attracts your attention. To do this, check out the titles, and glance at three or four. As you get close to making your final choice, check out the bio of the author or run a web search in order to get some background on the author. After making your final choice, read the entire article. Keep your notepad handy to capture your ideas/feelings as you go. When finished, organize your response into a letter addressed to the author.
	5. Paul's collaboration with women Many scholars and many women finger Paul as the culprit who reversed the agenda of Jesus. Jesus, as we have seen, was solidly for women (Lesson One) and cool toward any Gentile mission (Lesson Four). Did Paul, accordingly, turn these priorities on their head? No and yes.
	6. Women's ministries in the late NT period The current lesson has as its objective to push back the evidence for revealing how a wide spectrum of women emerged as capable apostles, teachers, and prophets within the Jesus Movement for a hundred years following the time of Paul.
	7. What about the role ascribed to Mary, the mother of Jesus? The Congregation for Doctrine in Rome sees a reason for the permanent exclusion of women from leadership roles in the fact that ‘Even Mary was not invested with the apostolic ministry.’ It derives this argument from some Fathers of the Church, such as Epiphanes, who was a bishop in Cyprus from 315-403 C.E.
	8. Nuptial imagery of the Bride and Bridegroom The Congregation for Doctrine in Rome maintains that in the symbolism of salvation, Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is his Bride. This symbolism of bride and groom, the Vatican claims, should be maintained in the person exercising leadership in Christ’s name. And Christ was a groom, a man.

Graduation Certificate: Participants who wish to merit a Graduation Certificate are asked to complete a research project that requires ten to fourteen hours of research and writing beyond the eight lessons of the course. Practice shows that the choice of topic is best left open until the final weeks of the course when further details will be distributed.

What former participants were saying. . . .

I bought a book called "women in the bible". It's really interesting and it definitely brought me closer to God, and to Jesus! I never really paid much attention to how much women were really involved in the forming of the Early Church!

I didn’t realize how radical Jesus was in addressing women in comparison to his contemporaries, and even what developed later in the rabbinic culture. Also, in that same textbox is a link to a modern Jewish reflection on the 10 virgins parable. That was deeply moving to me as it opened up the meaning of so much of what Jesus did and said in new ways.

What impacted me most in this effort/journey (the long and difficult journey toward liberation in Christ) was . . . hearing the responses of the women in our learning circle in enhancing this story [of the prostitute wiping the feet of Jesus] for me. . . . Her identity was shifting from being at the mercy and in subjection to finite men, who did not care for her as her Maker did, to being defined by a God who loves her deeply, and provides for her beyond the limitations of even her own finite abilities to provide meaning and life for herself. . . . It is a beautiful thing to watch displayed before us in this poetic account, and I vicariously experience this with this woman. Her experience immerses me further into my own identity in Christ. I feel the love and embrace of Jesus more deeply through this story.

I have always been contemplating Jesus in relation to women and I feel nurtured by it as I can perceive God closer to my own reality. It found refreshing to go through the accounts proposed in this session. I treasure all the reflections that I found very enriching but in particular, now I look at the parables through a different perspective.

Jesus was able to ‘scandalize’ the 'people of the law' and his disciples. With his attitude he taught to go beyond culture and tradition. How much we mistake the gospel and culture. The gospel is above any culture. for the sake of being accepted by people we serve, we might forget to challenge the part of culture that does not conform to the Gospel values. In nine years of mission in Southern Sudan, I never heard a preacher challenging the male dominant society with the word of God.

Reading the Bible with the eye of a woman is not new to me. But my experience in ministry made my vision of Jesus that I cultivated throughout the years to fade. I lived in frustration for many years as I could clash in my ministry life against a man-mentality that would not allow me to be who I am suppose to be.

I haven't always done the opening rituals, but I think it's wonderful that it's there. I have absolutely no suggestions-because this is a great course.

We are very blessed to live in the age we do. It is hard to believe that people use to be killed for contrary thoughts. Anyway, all that to say that ideas matter, and other people's ideas matter. We stand on the shoulders of many people who have lived before us.

I find as I read the lessons and the responses that questions come to mind. The chat sessions are often too busy to air these, and the other forums can be confusing with the layers of answers, so could we perhaps, if others agree, have a separate forum to post questions to the group?

This lesson really made me think, and I investigated my feelings about many things that I'd never thought about, or some issues that I'd had. It was a great lesson.

I enjoyed every single thing that contributed to my learning. I found hillarious the way things were narrated in the session about Sister Agnes. The method of unfolding the issue has been very clear and systematic. . . . I enjoyed and found very richfull.

Thank you to all the circle members for the insights and contribution. . . . The Spirit is at work in each one of us! Thank you to the moderator for the extra time dedicated to reply to the private emails. . . .

Lesson 3 was wonderful. Great information, and I enjoyed reading the other's responses. My dissatisfaction is only in not having the kind of time I'd like to invest.

Just a big thank you to all, your reflections are wonderful to read, sometimes they are quite different from my point of reference but I still learn so much from reading everything you have posted.

This week we were exposed to other points of view, we got past some of the apprehension (or at least I did) and began to explore personal stories and personal metaphores for God, service, ministry and priesthood.

The most important learning from this week's session was that despite what some people ( men & women) think it was not so easy for Jesus to have chosen women to be among his apostles (those "Sent"). Even with all his charismatic attributes, he was not able to transform his social and cultural mores in his short ministerial lifetime (nor in the immediate decades as the early church was forming). How is this important to me -- If Jesus couldn't bring change in a short amount of time -- then I shouldn't feel that I have failed to bring about this change e.g. women's ordination and/or inclusive God language in mine.

As I mentioned above, the student exchanges are helpful, and so is reading good scholarship. The only “annoying” thing is the date on some of the Pro-Vatican documents, they are all so old.

In this session, I found very enriching the following:

The omission of a woman from the twelve is a non-fact. The NON-FACT of Jesus not having chosen women among the twelve apostles does not prove that he decided against them forever. Jesus did not choose any Romans or Greeks, French or American apostles either. No one presumes from this that Jesus limited this church to the appointment of Galilean Jews.

Finally, I can affirming it without fear!

I think the readings only served to solidify in my mind that the loving, kind, all-embracing Jesus would never exclude more than half the population from consideration. We presume that the Word of God is good and right, and so it is. Why, then would we want to prevent it from being spread by anyone who is anxious, eager, excited and willing to spread it properly?

I learned that Jesus was more human than I thought, which brought me closer to him, and the Spirit, I think. The letter writing [in response to an article I chose to read] was most beneficial because it got me writing on the spot, and now I know what I would say to an author to an article that I am either influenced or angered by.

I feel more solidarity with women across time and those in this class right now. I also feel more responsibility to those who went before us, those we share with now, and those who come after. May our voices bring healing. I am glad to be in this class struggling through these issues with the women present here. I pray we would continue to help one another heal from damaging views, and encourage one another toward the Spirit and fellowship of our triune God. Thanks to everyone!!

It was an amazing course, and I've learned SO much from it! This course has definately helped me and my way towards Jesus. Thank you and all who were involved in the course!