The topic tonight is whether women should be permitted to teach men and the immediate corollary of this, whether they can be ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament. Both issues are related to the issue of women exercising leadership in the church. I will deal only tangentially with gender relationships within the family viz: submission of women to men. The key areas to be covered are the individual Scriptural texts, the example of Jesus and Paul and theological reflections. At the end of this paper it will be evident that the topic has raised deeper issues of whether women are fully human and whether our particular personal theological home is willing and capable of incorporating an alternative theological view even if it is derived from Scripture.
The aim tonight is not to give a highly detailed exposition of individual texts. There is simply not enough time. What I want to do is give a clear, concise and coherent overview of the main Biblical texts which are usually disputed.

Read more: Are women fully human? If so . . .