Women's Ordination

I have been following the developments of women’s ordination issue in the Adventist church for years. Now the Columbia Union Conference and the Pacific Union voted (August 2012) to allow women's ordination. Technically the union conferences have authority to approve ordination. Though the General Conference (our chief governing body) has no power to stop it, they have taken a very hard stand against this movement in the interest of unity. In my opinion their argument should be identified as one for "uniformity" not unity. Unity is something that comes in the midst of diversity. Uniformity is when we all look and act the same. In Acts 15 there was a major issue arising in the early church when Gentiles, who had never become Jews, joined the church. Some Jewish Pharisees, who converted to Christianity felt that the Gentiles should "… be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses." (Acts 15:5) The apostles, Peter and Paul with others went to Jerusalem to discuss this with the leadership there. Peter addressed them, sharing how God had sent the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles just as He had done for the Jews. (Acts 15:7-10) Then Paul and Barnabas spoke about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. (Acts 15:12) The Council of the church in Jerusalem (the General Conference of that day) then decided not to require the Gentiles to follow the Jewish ceremonial law. Clearly, they recognized what God had already done for the Gentiles. To ignore the evidence of God would be to ignore God. Many consider women's ordination in the Adventist church to be a similar issue. God has shown his acceptance of women by giving many the gift of pastoral ministry and today there are many women serving in our church as pastors. For years the general conference has discussed the ordination issue but keeps putting it off until a later date. A Commissioning service is meant to appease women. Votes to give them equal pay have also come; but still no true ordination. Maybe the GC is stuck in bureaucracy. So now the union conferences are beginning to act, to affirm what God has already done. Right before our eyes God has called women to serve in ministry, without asking our permission. It is time to affirm that gift. I wish our church had a clear theology of ordination. What we do in ordaining pastors as higher than local elders has no biblical basis. Women can be ordained as local elders but not pastors. Until we have a clear theology of ordination, we're just arguing. Since our church is avoiding that issue as well, it is time for a more local body to take a stand and recognize women as equal to men, under God, in the gift of pastoral ministry.