Women, Leadership, and Ordination in the Anglican Church in Nigeria

Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 has often been used to restrict women from holding certain leadership positions in the Church. This paper examines 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 in light of the female ordination debate in the Anglican Church in Nigeria. Through an exegetical study of the text, Paul’s perspective on women is demystified. To understand the place of women in the Church using scriptural texts, this article examines the perspectives of egalitarian theory, complemen­tar­ian theory, and liberation theology. The latter is included because it aims at interpreting biblical texts in a liberational way — Scripture is meant to deliver humans from all kinds of bondage and not to enslave. Exegesis is accompanyied by an examination of leadership roles of women in Igbo Traditional Religion, in which women are recognized as priestesses. The place of women in leadership in Igbo Traditional religion is pertinent to this work. Biblical texts are necessarily interpreted from the perspectives of human experience — including African women’s experiences. This article discovers through exegetical study of 1 Corinthians 14:26–40 that Paul was correcting a problem in the Corinthian church rather than hindering women from participating in the worship service or serving as leaders in the church. The Church should thus stop using the text to silence women or restrict them from holding certain leadership positions.