RECOLLECTIONS of the impact made by women ministers through the years when their presence was rarer than it’s now are among the many responses to Project Violet, an initiative that has now secured widespread commitments to improving the experience of Baptist women ministers.
Launched in 2021, the project is known as after Violet Hedger, who became the primary woman to check at a school for Baptist ministry, when she entered Regent’s Park College, Oxford, in 1919 (News, 17 May). The aim was to explore the “theological, missional, and structural obstacles” that girls ministers faced within the Baptist community in England and Wales. It has been co-led by the centenary development enabler for Baptists Together, the Revd Jane Day, and by Dr Helen Cameron, Research Fellow on the Centre for Baptist Studies at Regent’s Park College.
Over the past three years, 16 pieces of research have been undertaken by Baptist women ministers, culminating in 57 “requests for change”. Last month, a “commitment-to-action report” was published, setting out how churches, regional associations, and other stakeholders had responded to those requests. The majority were accepted or modified; only a small number were declined.
The Baptist Union Council has voted to affirm these commitments. They offered, Ms Day said, “real hope of systemic change”.
There are greater than 2000 Baptist women ministers, and 40 per cent of those training for ministry within the Baptist Union are women. Individual Baptist churches, nevertheless, retain the liberty under the Declaration of Principle to interpret scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This includes the liberty to adopt a complementarian and headship theology that restricts ministry positions for girls.
A submission to the project from the Revd Brian Nicholls notes the “resurgence” of complementarian teaching in university Christian Unions and in a few of the “latest church streams” — fuelled, he writes, by teachers including the American Baptist theologian the Revd Professor Wayne Grudem.
Among the requests for change is that congregations that don’t accept the ministry of ladies formally review that position before a settlement process (the seek for a latest minister), after which make the resolution of the church meeting known on their website.
The report says that girls ministers can experience questions on their marital status, spouses, and youngsters through the settlement process, “which suggest they’re being evaluated as women quite than as Ministers”. It requests greater guidance on this, to be included in the recommendation on the settlement process.
There was a positive response from the five Baptist colleges: only three requests were modified, and none were declined. The requests included the event of a module in “intercultural ministry”.
Some cautionary notes were sounded. The South Wales regional association spoke of the have to be “specific and strategic in taking a look at what we will do”, warning that there was “a danger that we could also be overwhelmed by the dimensions of the project”.
The Retired Baptist Ministers’ Network said that responding to the requests would involving “balancing many reasonable expectations, hurts and hopes, demands and requests . . . and all against the background of a Baptist Together Movement facing severe financial constraints and a number of other other vital demands and requests”. It also warned of “financial naïvety”.
Baptist churches are self-governing, but most (almost 2000) are a part of the Baptist Church of Great Britain (“Baptists Together”), supported by staff in 13 regional associations. Figures for 2023 show that membership has declined by 40 per cent since 2000, to 99,121. A financial model review has been commissioned by the Baptist Union Council in recognition of the “unsustainability” of the present funding model. The Project Violet report says that, “as fewer churches are capable of afford a full stipend, ministers are coming forward who’re willing to pursue a couple of vocation.”
Some submissions said that issues, reminiscent of those regarding the settlement process, also applied to male ministers.
Among those offering personal reflections was the Revd Dr Michael Bochenski, a former President of the Baptist Union, who recalled arriving at Regent’s Park College within the late Nineteen Seventies with a “ministry is male” assumption. He recalled how hearing the Revd Dr Myra Blyth (the primary female undergraduate to be admitted to the College) “so brilliantly . . . was mind-blowing for me”.
A submission, “What, me Lord?”, was made posthumously for the Revd Frances Godden by her husband, the Revd Harry Godden. She recalled that, within the Eighties, some members of the local congregation had been “horrified” by her call to ministry, and “tough months” had ensued. “Very precious to me has been working in harmony with many male colleagues and the occasions male ministers have shared concerns and appreciated my support,” she wrote.
Among the Project’s 57 recommendations is a call “for male Ministers to be allies in private and public”.
