Do you have religious leaders who are women...?

Question

...in your religion?
If not, do you agree with that? Why/Why not?

Answer 1

Yes. Being a religious leader has nothing to do with gender in my religion. I don't see why gender would matter. It also does not matter what color ones hair is, what the color of their eyes are, or what color their skin is. The country that they were born in doesn't matter or the financial class that their parents were in. What matters is that they are a good religious leader that people want to follow.

Answer 2

I'm a Unitarian Universalist, absolutely, "Yes!" We have now and have historically had many women leaders. One of the first women ministers in the United States was a Universalist.

Lydia Ann Moulton Jenkins (1824 or 1825-May 7, 1874) was a leader in the women's rights movement, a Universalist minister, and later a homeopathic physician. It has been claimed that she was the first woman to be granted ministerial fellowship in the United States, and perhaps the first to be ordained with full denominational authority. The effectiveness of her preaching helped to foster acceptance of women ministers within the denomination. Her medical practice and much of her ministry were carried out cooperatively with her husband, Edmund Samuel Jenkins, whom she married sometime between 1846 and 1850.

To read more about Ms Jenkins, follow the link below.

Answer 3

Spirit speaks to all who listen, regardless of gender, race, creed, etc. To deny women the right to be religious leaders is to say that they are inferior beings, with inferior morals, and are not capable of making leadership decisions.

This is a byproduct from a day whose time has long since passed. It has been proven unequivocably that the best deicisions are made by groups of people with differing backgrounds, not the same. Mixed groups of men and women make better decisions than either groups of men or groups of women. It doesn't matter which is leading, as long as s/he has leadership skills. In a religious group, the one who is hearing the voice of the Spirit most strongly and clearly is the one who should lead. It is a life one gets called for.

Not all great spiritual leaders are necessarily religious, either.

Answer 4

I subscribe to no organized religion, but the Episcoplainas in America have elected a woman Bishop and she runs the entire Church. She's basically the Pope for a lot of churches.

Some are now breaking away because of this and no longer aligning themselves with her. The International Confrences has factions of men intending to "diss" her when some comes to the conference to represent America.

Answer 5

Yes a few.

No I do not agree. The Bible sets out the requirements for Leadership in The Church.

Women are not to be Leaders in The Church.
They are not to be Bishops.
They are not to be Pastors.
They are not to be Elders.
They are not to be Deacons.
They are not to be Teachers.
(Teaching Children, and Women is Acceptable).

Answer 6

Most people think that in Islam there are no religious leaders who are/were women. In fact, one of the biggest scholars was 'Aisha who was the wife of Prophet Muhammad. People used to come to her with matters of religious since she had a lot of knowledge about Islam. There are also women who have written articles about different aspects of Islam.

Answer 7

The Catholic Church has many leaders who are women.

For starters, every superior of every women's religious order and every women's religious house (typically called a convent) is a woman. For obvious reasons.

Plus, the Church has a lot of agencies and schools and hospitals and homeless shelters and hospitals and crisis-pregnancy centers and diocesan offices and so on and so on ...

... and many of these branches of the Church are headed up by women, some of whom are nuns, but many of whom are laywomen.

.

Answer 8

Yes there are many women religious leaders in Hinduism.
Also among the various dieties they worship roughly half are female.

Answer 9

Personally I don't have a problem with women religious leaders. Someone needs to spread the gospel. I believe with my God, He is no respecter of person. God gives us what we need to say.

Answer 10

My branch of Judaism does not have Rabbis and Cantors who are women. And, I like it this way. When I go to a synagogue where there are women in this role, I feel very uncomfortable.

I also like the fact that men and women sit separately during services.