I was asked to look for statistics on Adventist women in North America and was astonished at what I found: almost nothing.
For the such a majority demographic, it was sad to see there hasn't been much research done. Hopefully helping others realize this can help change that fact.
What amazed me even more was the legacy of women in the Adventist church that no one seems to be aware of. Including me before the research.
The inspiring speech by Pat Gustin and spoken at the General Conference nominating conference in St. Louis 2005 really opened by eyes :
" In 1915, the year Ellen G. White died, our church membership was just over 100,000. Hard to believe, isn't it?At that same time, the number of female leaders in the church (conference/mission, union, general conference) was around 100. That means that for every 1,000 church members there was 1 female leader. (Obviously, there were many more women working as teachers, Bible workers, and yes, even evangelists and pastors. But I'm looking only at those in administrative positions.
If we had continued in this same way after Ellen White's death, we would today have 13,000 women in leadership positions in the church at the conference/mission, union, division and General Conference levels."
I do not want women to be in administrative positions in the Adventist church to fill required quota numbers. I am simply sadly stating that for such a leading democratic nation, it seems odd that a major demographic of the Adventist church seems to be underpresented in its leadership.
No comments:
Post a Comment