LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
WOMEN AND THE MINISTRY
SIR,—Although I am entirely in agreement with Janus in his support of the claims of qualified women to recognition as officials of the Church so far as preaching and teaching are concerned, may I be allowed to remind him that in St. Paul's view oneness in Christ" did not mean for him identity of vocation and function. The Apostle of the Gentiles held the ancient Jewish view of the female sex as the inferiors and chattels of men—vide the tenth commandment, which classes a man's wife in a lower category, as property, than his house—and his disciplinary rulings for the Corinthian Church show him as determined to " keep woman in her place " so far as public worship is concerned. That such a ruling, based on such premises and arguments as. St. Paul employed should be regarded in the twentieth century as one of the " eternal verities " is, as I think, as lamentable as it is surprising. For forty years or more it has been my high privilege to have a share in teaching theology to educated women (it still is !), not a few of whom are now "divinity mistresses " in public schools for girls, after having obtained the Lambeth diploma, or another certificate of qualification, and some the B.D. degree. With that experience behind me, I roundly assert that so far as their capacity for absorbing sacred learning in its profoundest aspects and for imparting it to others is concerned, modern woman has a potentiality in every way equal to that of men, and not infrequently superior to that of the average male candidate for Holy Orders.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
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