While Mennonites were among the first of Christian denominations to ordain women into the ministry, if in very rare instances, women have not experienced equal access to roles of leadership in the church until recent decades. Today, the Mennonite Church supports the ideal outlined in the “Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective,” which states: “The church calls, trains, and appoints gifted men and women to a variety of leadership ministries on its behalf.” A Friday seminar about patriarchy in the church encouraged men and women to further promote equality in Christian leadership.

The seminar, titled “Calling our daughters and sons: Women and men addressing patriarchy in the church together,” was offered for youth sponsors. Todd Lehman, pastor of Zion Mennonite Church in Hubbard, Ore., and Janeen Bertsche Johnson, campus pastor Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Ind., were joined by Joanna Shenk, a recent AMBS graduate, to lead the session.

The three opened their presentation by sharing personal experiences of patriarchy in the church as well as in personal relationships. Speaking to the latter, Shenk talked about her realization that she was becoming unconsciously more subservient to her boyfriend as their relationship wore on — until he broke up with her, citing “burnout” as his reason. Shenk said she recognized her increasing dependency on such relationships, which resulted in a feeling of disempowerment.

Then, Shenk explained, “I started to dig into the family system. I care about this [be]cause its part of my story and who I am. This is an issue that the church needs to be talking about.”

The seminar leaders distributed a case study for reading and discussion that explored the complexity of the influence of patriarchy. The case study was a brief description of “Steve” and “Mary,” a married couple who experienced confusion when both participated in an ordination ceremony but soon realized that part of the congregation believed that Mary had not actually been ordained. Mary was eventually re-ordained, but eventually she resigned from her pastor position at the church, closely followed by her husband.

Forming small discussion groups, people were asked to discuss questions about the historical institutionalization of patriarchy in the church. “Sometimes with patriarchy, and this is true also of racism, those who have the power don’t realize the way that they use it to subordinate others,” said Lehman.

As the entire group of around 75 people reconvened to discuss the story with the seminar leaders, Bertsche Johnson said, “Storytelling helps us start to see things in a new way. There’s a lot happening that we just have to name.”

Importantly, the discussion turned to the idea that struggling against patriarchy in the church is equally important for male liberation as for female empowerment. Johnson described a man she knew who refused to speak in a mixed-gender group until at least one woman had spoken. “I see him working actively at his own liberation from these systems,” she said excitedly.

Cindy Longacre of Telford, Pa., brought up the contrast between female leadership among youth and adults. “We want there to be a strong man and a strong woman so that the woman can care for the female youth, but then when you get into the adult arena, where is the strong woman for them?” Longacre wondered aloud.

In light of recent progress, the seminar’s leaders still see room for transformation away from the current patriarchal system of the church.

“It takes as long to undo a system as to do it,” said Shenk,”and we’re talking about patriarchy. This…is a life’s work”