Abstract:
The role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches of the Germiston District of Gauteng: a ritual-liturgical exploration, is a qualitative study conducted in three township churches. The study seeks to answer the question “What are the factors promoting or hindering the role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches (particularly in the AOG (BTG)) in the Germiston District of Gauteng?”
This study is premised on the assertion by Gabaitse (2015:2), that recent studies indicate that while the Pentecostal movement is potentially a liberating space, it still has ambivalent attitudes towards women; and that the church remains a space which subjugates women “even as it offers them a unique permission to speak.”
The theoretical framework of the study is Richard Osmer’s four core tasks of Practical Theological Interpretation, viz. The Descriptive task, the Interpretive task, the Normative task and the Pragmatic task.
The ritual-liturgical exploratory nature of the study demanded that the researcher should also deal with concepts such as worship, liturgy, ritual and women’s roles in the Old and New Testament worship. There was also a discussion of the concept of liturgy, which included liturgy as ritual, liturgy and tradition, and liturgical inculturation.
The data collection methods were qualitative focus group interviews with women, as well as semi-structured interviews with congregational leaders. Data from the focus group interviews was presented in narrative form and ‘emic’ view of the participants. Tesch’s descriptive method of open coding was adopted in presentation of the data, as well as the thematic structure of the focus group interview schedule.
The study revealed that the participants knew the roles played by men and women in worship. However, their roles were not significant in preaching in corporate services; as well as in congregational leadership positions, including being ordained pastors.
The study showed further that women’s commitment, unity, passion for children, cooperation and action-orientatedness were major factors in their success in most church activities. In contrast, some of the factors which accounted for their roles and impact being insignificant were, the culture of members of the church, church tradition and selective use of some texts of the Bible to bring women into submission. Participants indicated that the pragmatic way-forward is to go back to proper study and interpretation of the Bible. While some participants proposed a top-down approach to change systemic issues of the church, others said in improving the situation the different leadership structures should consult with other church members in a bottom-up approach.
This study showed that while women are allowed to participate in some areas of worship in the AOG (BTG), the fundamental issues of patriarchy and gender equality with regard to preaching, ordination of pastors, as well as appointment into leadership positions of the whole church still need to be addressed.
