Women’s Church role praised

Press, 16 November 1987, Page 6

Women’s Church role praised

DEBORAH MCPHERSON The “daughters” of the Church in New Zealand might be leading the way into the future, said; the new Moderator of ‘ the Presbyterian Church,l the Rt Rev. Margaret Reid Martin at her induction ceremony in Christchurch yesterday. • “It was women who surprised with the news of Christ’s resurrection, that tremendous newness, God doing a new thing,” Mrs Reid Martin told more than 800 people gathered for the opening of this year’s General Assembly at St Paul’s Trinity Church.

“God is still doing new things and sometimes it is women who see them first.”

Mrs Reid Martin received her cloak of office from the immediate past Moderator the Very Rev. Kenape Faletoese, who was the first Samoan Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, and a former pastor at St Paul’s.

Mrs Reid Martin is the first woman minister to be made a Moderator, but the second woman to hold the office. The first, Mrs Joan Anderson, was a lay woman. ?. •

During her sermon,' Mrs Reid Martin gave a strongly affirmative mesasage for women in the Church. “It is women who more easily move from the well developed, well-educated left side of the logic and planning, to the right side of intuition and the power of symbol and metaphor, Story and poem. This is enriching our understanding of many parts of the

Bible.” It was also women who, through their creativity, “reminded us of the God who is continuously creating and whose image in us is our creativity,” she said.

“It is often the women who ate seeking a better quality of relationship in marriage and friendship. It is often the women who see the need for support groups — for people who are trying out new things — and. for people hurting in society.”

Women were also playing a big part in a new emphasis on health, one that was “holistic,” and reflected the image God the creator, who was a “whole” being, Mrs Reid Martin said. "Women help us live with paradox and diversity. They can often see beyond the either or, to the but also.

Mrs 1 Reid Martin was careful: to point out, however, that “all this is not confined to women.”

“The, image of God is wholeness, male and female,”

In a’symbolic reference to the Church’s severe financial pressures lately, Mrs Reid Martin likened the Church to a “tree struck by lightning,” with "a fire inside that was still smouldering.”

Although the financial situation was much better now, the Church was still feeling the effects of that “lightning,” she said. The Church could, however, face the trauma and risk of being “reborn into the real world.”