Sean Major-Campbell | Women carrying the good news at Easter

“There is hope, because we are invited to trust that God will do a new thing.” Prophetic words from our dearly beloved in Christ, Sarah Mullally, the first woman to be installed as the Archbishop of Canterbury! Amen, and Amen.

God uses the humble. God calls those whom others underestimate. God looks not at the appearance, but at the heart. When Samuel went to anoint the one called by God, Jesse, the father of David, neglected to invite the shepherd boy to the ‘identification parade’. David’s father was in for a lesson in how God works. In 1 Samuel 16:7, we see what might be considered a progressive stance today. But the LORD said to Samuel, “ Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

It was most fitting that Sarah’s installation was held on the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the celebration of the Angel Gabriel’s announcement of Jesus’ birth to Blessed Mary (Luke 1). Another woman was also affirmed in the account. She was Elizabeth, the mother of John. Considered barren but still called by God to birth the forerunner of the Christ, for nothing will be impossible with God.

The inspired Archbishop of Canterbury aptly notes, “But here, in this moment of encounter with the angel, before any of the story unfolds, Mary is invited to open her heart, to offer herself and say, ‘Here I am,’ and to put her hope in the angel’s words, ‘for nothing will be impossible with God’.”

Accepting the ministry of women has been a challenge and a horror, first, for some men who deem their historical, patriarchal privilege a divine status to be protected. The privileged always find equality to be oppressive. Gender equality therefore becomes a trigger for much anxiety, shock, and abject feelings of loss.

To witness the normalising of women in positions of authority and power is difficult for many conservative thinkers, for whom the status quo has long become a comfort zone. It therefore provides an opportunity to declare God as being of masculine gender, while assigning divine coverage to a fragile masculinity that must be protected at all costs.

Jesus often encountered the anger and vitriol of the religious elite, who were concerned about his liberating approach to women and his therapeutic response to taboo situations. In Matthew 9:22, when the woman with a bleeding disorder touched Jesus, the account made a powerful observation. “Jesus turned and saw her.’Take heart, daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’” And the woman was healed at that moment.

Many simply see this as a healing story re the bleeding. However, it is also a healing of a taboo situation marked by stigma and discrimination. Levitical law determined that the woman was unclean and therefore, her touching anyone rendered them ceremonially unclean. Instead of that happening to Jesus, he authoritatively affirmed her faith and declared her healing.

Let us hear Archbishop Mullaly again: “There is hope, because we are invited to trust that God will do a new thing.” Consider the disciples’ shock upon seeing Jesus talking with the woman at the well. In one moment, Jesus crashed the old barriers constructed around cultural, social, and gender assumptions. Many in the Church are still trying to process this today.

Stigma and discrimination have long served the protected evils of misogyny, racism, homophobia, and other ills within the Church.

Mullally’s brief message abounds with theological truth. “… The Church, through the ordinary lives of its people, continues to do so many extraordinary acts of love. God’s people, offering a listening ear, a word of encouragement or a prayer of healing, offering food, shelter, sanctuary and welcome in a world that so often seeks to divide us, tables to sit at, conversations to be shared, and being a simple loving presence, like the salt of the Earth, a light on the hill, the treasure of the kingdom, a Church for the whole nation and for the world, which looks for ways of joining in with people of all faiths and of none in acts of service which will transform, a church which extends around the world with our sister churches in the Anglican Communion, as part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church to embody Christ’s love.”

Do you still believe it is impossible for God to work in and through a woman who is called, empowered, and sent by God? In God’s kingdom, gender inferiority is not known.

The time is here for the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to prayerfully explore God’s call for a woman to serve while holding the office of the episcopate, “for with God, nothing will be impossible”.

This Easter, let us hear again these humble words from the new Archbishop of Canterbury. “God is at work in the good news of the Gospel and in the hearts and lives of ordinary people who, like Mary, have the audacity to believe that with God we can do extraordinary things.” This Easter, may we also remember that women were the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and they were also the first carriers of the good news to the other disciples.

If dry bones can live again, just imagine what God-blessed, inspired women can do, “for with God, nothing will be impossible”.

Fr Sean Major-Campbell is an Anglican priest and advocate for human rights and dignity. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and seanmajorcampbell@yahoo.com.