Why so few younger women clergy?

Back in January I blogged about this question, but it's still there, and still needs an answer. There's a concern in the Church at the moment about the rising average age of clergy. We have been reaping the 'wisdom' of some years past, when young Christians who felt called by God to ordained ministry were told to go and 'get a life' first.

But now we're starting to see younger people coming forward, some of us have noted that there are distinctly fewer young women in training than young men. And looking round the church, there are not many young women in stipendiary ministry.

There are a whole variety of reason:

• women don't get as much encourament as men do
• there are fewer young women in churches
• some of these younger women belong to more conservative churches which don't allow women to take on preaching or leadership roles
• some women in their 20s and 30s have a young family and have chosen to keep their sense of call on hold.

But I was disturbed by a recent letter to the Church Times (13th August), which talked of the experience of one young woman at her first selection conference.

She was told when young, as many young men also used to be told, that she was 'inexperienced'. The subtext, according to the letter was 'go away, get a job, have babies, then come back.' This she did, and was finally accepted many years later.

The letter goes on to highlight other concerns which I've also noticed recently. When it came to a title parish, 'Ever present was the unspoken hint that a mature woman might be threatening to her training incumbent. And she had a family, all of whom had well-established ties to people and places,, which made things more "complicated" for the diocese. Would they have either of these concerns about a man?'

Some might, others would not. It is so hard to prove that anything like this is gender discrimination. The writer of the letter wonders why the Church seems so much more nervous about accepting inexperienced young women, when there are plenty of such men in training. A fair point. And then if those women return a few years later, they have other hurdles to overcome.

I believe that the discernment process is a good one, and that when the writer of the letter calls it 'secretive' and by implication, biassed, this is unfair. But that does not mean that it's not harder, often, for women than for men.

The Church of England needs more young women to offer themselves for a lifetime of ministry. I know some great young women who have been accepted for training at recent panels. But I think there is still more progress to be made in nurturing the vocations of women in their 20s.

And what is true for the Church of England is probably just as true in other denominations. I've read research which points to subtle or less subtle forms of discrimination in a variety of denominations. Where we are aware of barriers which make the selection process more difficult for women than for men, we need to keep raising concerns, until the process is truly equal for all.

Why are so few women ordained young?

Why is it that so few women are ordained in their 20s?

OK, so the age of ordinands in the Church of England, both men and women, had been going up and up until recently. But there are still more young male ordinands than young female ordinands. And I suspect the pattern is similar in other denominations.

Few women are ordained in their 20s, and not that many in their 30s. The latest (2008) stats for the Church of England show that there are only 15 (women) parochial clergy under the age of 30 (13 of them curates), and only another 167 under the age of 40 (68 incumbent/incumbent status and 99 curates).

This has all sort of implications. The needs of women ordained in their 20s are different from those ordained later. And the dearth of women ordained at this age may partly account for the lack of women in senior posts or leading larger churches. Even if they come to ordination with leadership experience, clergy need a measure of experience within the Church before taking on a more demanding senior post.

I can understand both the issue and the concerns. I was ordained at age 37. It had taken me quite a while to even consider it (confidence was one issue). And then there were those who said that women could not be ordained (or could not be leaders) because the Bible said so; it took me quite a long time to get my head around that, especially in the light of so few resources from an egalitarian perspective.

I wonder what others think (and if you've accessed this through the CPAS website, and can't comment, you can email me direct, or find the blog independently, until we fix the problem!)...

If you're reading this thinking, 'I wonder if God is calling me to be ordained?' there are a variety of events which can help. If you're between the ages of 16-30 you may be interested in 'Step Forward', an event at Cranmer Hall, Durham on 6th February; Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham is speaking and there will be various workshops during the day. If you can't get to Durham, CPAS run regular 'You and Ministry' weekends for anyone who is exploring vocation; I'm also available to give vocations advice to women.

We all have a part to play in encouraging younger women to think about ordination (or leadership in our own denomination): as role models, as mentors, by giving them opportunities to develop as leaders, or with a tap on the shoulder.

Get a life!

A great new resource for helping young people explore vocation.

The latest email from the Church of England draws attention to a new course for teenagers on the subject of vocation, written by Tim Sledge and Ally Barrett. Click here for more info.

It's a shame that the course appears to focus largely on male Bible characters, and uses a film focusing on boys (Billy Elliott). They could have used Bend it like Beckham, or Whale Rider. But then I realise there are probably fewer boys than there are girls in many youth groups, and they may need extra encouragement.

If you know of those at the top end of teenage (17-18+) or any age older than this, who might value a weekend to find out more about ordained or authorised ministry in the Church of England, CPAS is running one of its You and Ministry weekends in Poole at the end of May. See the CPAS website for more details.