In Good Company

A unique collection of personal stories about the struggle for equality by women in the ministry and those still excluded from it.

Women who have been ordained often have to live with stereotypes and assumptions; with personal and practical challenges. They may be subjected to tokenism, discrimination, trivialisation. They may be open to abuse and isolation. And eventually they find themselves up against the ‘stained glass ceiling’ created by the church’s obsession with power, rank and position. Then there are those whose churches still do not even recognise the right of women to formalise a ministry that they are already carrying out in everything but name.

This book makes clear the kinds of obstacles in the way of women both in and outside the ministry and gives a glimpse of the faulty theology that underlies opposition to them. It highlights the challenge that women bring to existing church structures and offers hope for the future of a truly all-inclusive, all-affirming and empowering ministry.

Contributors: Joanna Anderson (Anglican priest), Georgina Baxendale (Church of Scotland minister), Helen Blackburn (Advocate for the ordination of Roman Catholic women priests), Lesley Carroll (Presbyterian minister), Margaret Forrester (Church of Scotland minister), Alison Fuller (Scottish Episcopal priest), Ruth Harvey (Director of the Ecumenical Spirituality Project for the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland), Viv Lasseter (Baptist minister), Kate McIlhagga (United Reformed Church minister), Jean Mayland (Anglican priest), Lesley Orr Macdonald (Action for Churches Together in Scotland), Katharine Poulton (Church of Ireland priest), Elizabeth Wardlaw (United Free Church minister).

192 pp