an Eldis Resource
Baptist Convention women as agents of change and accommodation
Women and the church in Malawi
Authors:
R. Banda
Publisher:
Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 2000
History has shown what women in many Christian churches have been perceived to take support roles only, while leaving leadership roles to their male counterparts. Many women on both the local and the global scene have written against such malpractice’s and sought ways of how church women can be liberated as they serve in church and society. The purpose of this paper is not to show how women are oppressed or why, for this has been well demonstrated through the writings of many, but the paper seeks to show, through the history of Baptist Convention women, whether such a claim is totally, partially or not true at all, as regards the historic experiences of Baptist Convention women in Malawi.
This paper argues that Baptist Convention women present an alternative view of the status of women in church and of their role in society. Since their early beginning in 1960, Baptist Convention women have enjoyed relative freedoms in roles they have assumed in church and society because of their ability to accommodate themselves to the existing Christian and traditional cultures, though not at the expense of being agents of social, religious and political change in their communities. This is possible because of Baptist church polity and doctrine. Baptist polity does not force congregations to conform to uniformity apart from doctrinal issues. Their polity emphasises more equal partnership than hierarchies.
