The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-05-08
CHURCHES DIVIDE ON QUESTION OF
 WOMEN PASTORS
By Adelaide Kerr

ster? Would you have one as head of your church?
 Those are burning questions in some congregations today. And prob ably more will consider them in the year ahead than ever before Ac oording to the Federal Conucil of the Churches of Christ in America, there is a great shortage of ministers and. in the face of thatlick, great movement of young women as well as young men toward life service in the church. Moreover, the war open ed many doors to women which hitherto had been closed to them and some mature able women, who want to do a i-amanitsr-s-. work, are seeking pulpits.
 ! But the door to these t by no means wide open to women. Ever since St. Paul said, Let yor women keep silence in the churches!' mill lions have followed his dictum.
 During World War IT." enc Amer ican churchman recalls. "tte Bis hop of Hong Kong pressed by a shortage of ministers ordained a wo- man. When word of it reached church headquarters. one churchman was so upset that he called thie ordi- nation of a member of the sex to which his mother belonged an af. front to God There was such to-do about the whole thing that the woman withdrew"
 Other women seeking pastorates have met skepticism and doubt Re- ligious organizations which have surveyed the field say that the pull pits given to women are generally in small, rundown churches, som of which have been closed for years Some women ministrs have been so successful in building these up that other congregations, aware of their fork, have asked for women pastors.
 i Few churches today give women equal status. Among the religious organizations which do are the Christian Science Church, The Co., ciety of Friends (Quakers) the Unity School of Christianity and tThe Salvation Army.
 Miss Inez Cavert of the Federal l Council of Churches, who is making a survey on women in the churches, reports: The Methodists, Congre- gational Christians, Unitarians, Univefsalists, Diciples of Christ Northern Baptists and some other , church bodies ordain women, though , the MethodistS do not give their , ordained women full status. Some churches license women, but do not ordain them"
 The Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians do neither. The Pres byterian church, U. S. A. referred the question of ordination of wo- lmen to it's presbyterie last summer for the second time in history, but it was voted down.
 Those who do not want women in the pulpit warp up their objections in some such words as these:
 Women lack emotional balance and the ministry calls for sober ju- dicial judgement Men won't have a woman telling them off and women :. wouldn't like it either. Women can not take the same part in such community activities as the Rotary Club that men take. If you have women ministers, there will be nc men in the churches"
 Those who would like to see more women as ministers reply: There are very few men in churches now Perhaps capable appealing woman minister might be what is needed to hring them in. A fine woman }. has maternal quality which enables r her to understand anothers prob lens and help him solve them She r can cope with birth, marriage, ill., ness, broken homes and death as i. well as a man and large part of a l minister's work is this job of help ing people adjust their lives.
 Men trust the rearing, education and character formation of theil children to women. They are always quoting their mothers as oracles Then why do they object to trust ling the religious guidance of adults to women? One look at the way man. kind has conducted itself while mer have headed the churches seems tc indicate some changes could well be made"