Strategies for Feminist Ministries of Ordained Women Ministers in the Korean Protestant Churches

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The year 1996 was the year when the Presbyterian Church of Korea passed the ordination for women's ministry, which women in the Korean churches have needed for sixty four years. Since then, a lot of woman ministers and woman elders have been ordained. It is expected that they will increase in number. If so, can woman ministers' growth in numbers solve women's problem? The growth is not in proportion to the solution. As far as women do not have feminist recognition, woman ministers follow structure of the patriarchal church and focus on ministers' authority and privilege. Lay people are not regarded as subject but as object. Even if woman ministers do not accept men's monopolistic authority, patriarchy of the church fixes women's role, that women fulfill a maternal role based on mothering activities.
Therefore, this dissertation tries to analyze woman ministers' reality and to seek an alternative plan for feminist ministry. For this it will show the difference and similarity between maternal ministry and feminist ministry and propose feminist ministry as a paradigm suitable for the Korean situation. Moreover it will try to develop a strategy for feminist ministry in favor of the Korean woman ministers. The feminist point of view selected here does not limit women to maternal roles but rather pushes for equality.
The method in this dissertation consists in interview and bibliographical analysis. The historical, social, and theological study for woman ministers' realities is analyzed by means of bibliographical method. The interviewees are nineteen from the above three denominations and the questions focus on their understanding of feminist ministry based on equality. Then, I try to analyze and critique their realities of life and to suggest alternative strategies for feminist ministry.
I want to clarify the terms that I used in this dissertation. Within women’s ministry I want to distinguish between an understanding of ‘mothering ministry’ and ‘feminist ministry’. ‘Women’s ministry’ indicates all the ministerial activities of women in various sexual and physiological aspects. ‘Mothering ministry’ means the ministry based on maternity related with delivery and nurture. The term ‘feminist ministry’ means the whole and integrated and equal ministerial activities to rehabilitate the whole humanity of women. It aims at consolidating ministers with lay people, men with women, and humans with nature. It rejects the dualistic world view in favor of an integrated world view.
This dissertation has eight chapters. In the introduction I will describe its motive, purpose, scope, organization, limitations, and expectations. In Chapter 2 I will deal with the process of patriarchy of the church in Korean church history and of West from the perspectives of its curtailing and eliminating women’s participation. In Chapter 3 I will investigate women ministers' institutional position around statistics on the number of commissioners at the united institutions, staffs at the headquarters of the general assemblies, and professors at the theological seminaries. Chapter 2 and 3 will be at the basic study for this dissertation.
In Chapter 4 I will describe the principle of feminist ministry. I will examine the debate on equality and maternity at women studies from the perspective of the context of the Korean Christianity. Then, I will discuss feminist ecclesiology and feminist ministry. In Chapter 5 there are four categories of feminist ministry such as authority, women's recognition, leadership, and ministers' roles. Chapter 4 and 5 will make us understand theories of feminist ministry.
In Chapter 6 through the interviews I will analyze women ministers' ministerial recognition and their ministerial types. The analysis will be based on four categories in women’s ministry. To effectively show women ministers' realities of life I will explore the hypothetical situations. In Chapter 7 I will propose a strategy for feminist ministry on the basis of the interviews. Chapter 8 is a conclusion.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. INTRODUCTION = 5
• II. WOMEN'S MINISTRY IN CHURCH HISTORY = 10
• 1. Women's Ministry in the History of the Western Church = 10
• 1) The Early Church : The Equal Gifts Communities
• 2) Bishop of Christianity: The Beginning of the Patriarchy of the Church
• 3) Christianity as an Imperial Religion: the Hierarchical Church
• 4) The Church after the Reformation: Women into Individual Sphere
• 2. Women's Ministry in the History of the Korean Church = 19
• 1) The Appearance of the ‘Bible Women’(‘Chondobuin’)
• 2) The Education for the ‘Bible Women’
• 3) The Activities and the Roles of the Chondobuin
• 4) The Systematizing Process of the Korean Church and the ‘Bible Women’: in the 1930s
• 5) Women Who Opposed against the Hierachichal system of the Church
• III. THE PRESENT SITUATION OF WOMEN MINISTRY IN KOREA
• 1. The Settlement of the System of the Ordination for Women's Ministry = 53
• 2. Women Ministers' Institutional Position from the Statistical Perspective = 56
• 1) Ratio of Women Ministers
• 2) Types of Women's Ministries
• 3) The Ratio of Women Commissioners
• 4) The Ratio of Women Staffs in the Headquarters of the General Assembly
• 5) The Ratio of Woman Professors to men Professor
• 6) Welfare for Women Ministers
• IV. PRINCIPLES FOR FEMINIST MINISTRY
• 1. The Debate about Maternity = 66
• 1) Debate about Maternity in the sphere of Feminist Studies
• 2) Debate about Maternity in Feminist Theology
• 2. The Theory of an Equal-Oriented Feminist Ministry = 76
• 1) The Feminist Ecclesiology : in Russell, Fiorenza and Ruether
• 2) The Western Feminist Church Movement
• 3) A New Understanding of 'Servanthood Ministry'
• 4) Feminist Ministerial Theory
• 3. The Principles for Feminist Ministries = 90
• V. THE STRUCTURE OF FEMINIST MINISTRIES
• 1. Women's Recognition as a Self Affirmation = 94
• 2. Communal Leadership = 95
• 3. Minister as Facilitator = 97
• 4. Authority as Empowerment = 99
• VI. THE KOREAN WOMEN MINISTERS' MINISTRIES THROUGH INTERVIEWS
• 1. Interviewees = 105
• 2. Women's Consciousness = 107
• 3. Feminist Ministry = 119
• 4. Ministers' Roles and Authority = 131
• 5. Leadership = 140
• 6. Possibility of Feminist Ministry = 146
• VII. PROPOSAL FOR STRATEGY OF KOREAN WOMEN MINISTERS' FEMINIST MINISTERY
• 1. Theological Education = 150
• 2. Job Location = 151
• 3. Identity of Women Ministers = 152
• 4. Formation of Ministerial Structure = 153
• 1) Lay Activation
• 2) Bible Study Orienting the Whole Spirituality
• 3) Understanding Bonds of the Churches Family Churches
• 4) Change of Worship Method
• 5. Solidarity Activities = 161
• 1) The Denomination Unification Movement
• 2) Participation in the Ecumenical Movement
• 6. Evaluation = 162
• VIII. CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX : QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS = 172
• REFFERENCES = 175