Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss Speakman, on lesson seven of 14 on the Human Rights unit.

And in today's lesson, we're looking at the role of women within Christianity.

So in our lesson today, we're going to looking at Christian views on the roles of women.

Look at the issue surrounding female ordination, which means making someone become a priest, a vicar, or a bishop.

And look at the case study of Libby Lane, who is the first female bishop in the Church of England.

So let's get ourselves ready for our lesson.

Let's get a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper or an exercise book, and a different coloured pen ready for corrections, and making sure we've got a nice, clear, quiet working space, please.

So TV and music off.

Phone to one side if we're not using it for the lesson, and always making sure we've got a clear, quiet working space.

The more quiet it is, and the more away it is from distractions, the better we will learn.

So if you need to get yourself ready at all, please pause the video now, then unpause when you are ready to start learning.

Okay, brilliant, let's get started then.

So I want to get, first of all, your initial thoughts.

From what you've already studied on Christianity, can you think of any Christian views on the role of women? What do you know already about what Christianity thinks about the roles of men and women? I want you to answer this in about two minutes, I don't want you to spend too long on it, just to get down your initial thoughts.

Perhaps maybe you don't know, if so have a go.

What do you think Christians would teach about the role of women? And then when you are ready unpause and then we'll go through specific teachings together.

Amazing, thank you for writing down your thoughts.

Let's go through it together.

You might see some of the things you've written down in what I'm going to be talking about in a moment.

So traditional Christian views on the role of women.

We can start off with many traditional views on the role of women within Christianity, men are the head of the family and women just stay at home and care for the children.

And you might look at this at first glance and say, oh, that doesn't sound very equal.

Those traditional Christians may say that men being the head of the family, working, providing financially, et cetera, women staying at home and looking after the children and looking after the home are equal valued roles.

So many Christians who believe this traditional view would say that they may be different roles, but they're seen as equal in value, just as important as each other.

Many Christians say that men and women are created equally, but different.

So created equally in value, but have different roles.

And those roles are just as important.

If the man didn't provide financially for the family, that would be problematic.

And if the woman didn't care for the home property, and the children, that would be problematic.

So many Christians would say this doesn't mean that men are superior to women.

Then we have the teaching within Genesis where Adam is created, it says "it's not good for the man to live alone.

"I will make a suitable companion to help him." Many traditional Christians would say, this means that the woman is created as a helper for Adam, that women are there to assist men in the jobs that they have to do, and for the family.

And so many Christians interpret this either as that women are helpers and therefore inferior to men, which some Christians may believe, or might say that they equal in value, but essentially Eve is there to help in this sort of way, staying at home, looking after the children.

We also have teachings where some traditional Christians may say that men have all authority over women.

So we've got, "women should learn in silence "and all humility.

"I do not allow them to teach or to have authority over men; "they must keep quiet." Some Christians will take this traditional view that women should stay silent within church, and they should have no role of authority within the church, whether that's like a priest, vicar, et cetera, which we'll look at in more detail later.

And some Christians would take this teaching and therefore believe that men have authority over women.

So we do see sort of a different view in traditional Christian views.

Some who believe that there's traditional roles, but they're equal in value, and that men and women are equal in value.

Or you might find some Christians who believe that men are superior to women.

A more sort of liberal view, we might call this, or more modern view on the roles of women.

So you might say that men and women are equal in value and that gender doesn't matter to God, and therefore the roles are interchangeable.

Nothing wrong, therefore, some Christmas say, with women working and men staying home looking after the children, or both parents working and caring for the children.

Many Christians might have different interpretations of the verse where it says companion to help him.

Some Christians say that the fact that Adam needs a helper means that men are not superior, because essentially Eve helping means that they both need each other to do all the jobs that is expected of them.

And we also have this verse within Galatians, which I always think is great for this unit, which is "there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, "between slaves and free people, between men and women.

"You're all one in union with Christ Jesus." Essentially saying that in God's eyes, everybody's equal, there's no difference between them based on gender or religion, et cetera, and that the key thing is that all people are equal based on God's love.

So what we're going to do now is do what I call multiple choice quickfire questions.

It's a really good way of testing our knowledge so far.

Essentially what I'm going to get you to do is I'm going to give you a question.

There are two possible answers.

I give you a countdown of three seconds.

After three seconds I ask you to point at the screen or say out loud, which one's the correct answer, whichever one you feel more comfortable with.

I think they're a really good way of testing knowledge.

You don't have to commit anything down to paper just yet.

It's just for you to say, oh I did, I understood that or oh, actually I'm not quite there yet, I need to go back over that.

So I'm going to disappear and we're going to get started on our multiple choice quickfire questions.

All Christians believe men and women are completely equal in status, true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is false.

Not all Christians will believe this.

In Christianity, traditionally the man is the head of the family, true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

That's the traditional view of the man's role in the family.

Most Christians believe men and women are equal in value.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that's true.

So most Christians do believe men and women are equal in value.

Some Christians believe women should not have authority over a man.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

So some Christians believe that because of the teachings of Eve being a helper for Adam, that they should not have authority over a man.

All Christians believe women should stay at home and look after the children.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is false.

Well done if you got all of your quickfire questions, correct.

We're now going to move on to some longer questions to sort of bring this together.

So I want you to answer the following questions.

Spend about three minutes on this.

There are two questions.

What's the traditional Christian view of the role of the women? And why does this view exist? And what is another Christian view on the role of women? And why does this view exist? I've got some sentence starters there to help you if you would like to use them.

So I want you spend about five minutes on this.

Use what we've looked at so far.

Those multiple choice quickfire questions are my explanations to write your answer.

So pause the video now, write your answers, unpause when you're ready to move on and look at the answers.

Okay, please have your different coloured pen out ready for corrections.

If you're not quite finished then you can rewind the video and carry on with the questions, but I'm assuming we're ready for corrections.

Your answers don't have to be exactly like mine, but of course it will help to add things where you feel you need to.

So let's have a look at the answers.

So the traditional Christian view of the role of women is that they do not have authority over men and should stay at home and look after the children.

Evidence for this can be found in 1 Timothy, which says that women should keep quiet and have no authority over men, as well as interpretation of the Genesis story in which Eve was created as a helper for Adam.

Another Christian view of the role of women is that they are equal to men and that men and women can have interchangeable roles.

Neither men nor women have authority over the other.

Evidence for this can be found in Galatians, which states, "there is no difference between men and women; "you are all one in union with Christ Jesus." So if you need to make any corrections, or you find any of these things useful, please pause the video now and make your corrections.

And what we're going to do is look at Christian views of the roles of women in worship.

Okay, so we've looked at general Christian views in the roles of men and women.

We're now going to have a look at what this then looks like in practise with the role of women in worship.

There are three sort of main views that we're going to look at.

So we've got, women should be silent in church.

Women cannot lead worship.

And women can lead worship.

So with the women should be silent in church, we look at this verse in 1 Corinthians, which says "the women should keep quiet in the meetings.

"They are not allowed to speak as the Jewish Law says, "they must not be in charge." Some Christians may interpret this in this sort of literal sense that women should say silent in church, should not contribute in church, whether that is providing a reading or actually leading worship as a priest, a bishop or a vicar, for example.

So some Christians may take this literally and believe that women should stay silent in church.

Some Christians, however, believe that women cannot lead worship, but can take part in delivering readings.

So in the Roman Catholic and many Orthodox churches, women are not able to lead worship, but they can take part in liturgical worship, such as delivering readings.

So in the Roman Catholic church, they do not ordain female bishops or female priests.

Essentially, this means you won't meet a priest or a bishop in the Roman Catholic church who is a woman.

Some Christians interpret this based on the teachings in Corinthians, but also some refer to the fact that Jesus and his disciples were all men and therefore, as following Jesus example, all priests and bishops, vicars, et cetera should be male.

Then we do have women can lead worship.

So in many Protestant and Anglican churches, women can take part in worship and lead it.

And it actually refers to female bishops in the Bible where it says, "I recommend to you our sister Phoebe, "who serves the church." Now, essentially what this shows for many Christians, especially Protestant and Anglican churches, is that women who lead worship, who serves the church, were very important and therefore believe that women can do just as good a job at leading worship.

And that, essentially, anyone, as long as they are praising God, is doing a great job whether they are male or female.

In fact, actually I do know myself, a female vicar who does a very good job.

So there are sort of three main sort of strands of thought within the church.

Some churches that will not ordain female bishops or priests, some that will and allow women to lead worship and to be priests, to be bishops or vicars et cetera, and some who take the more traditional view that women should stay silent in church.

So there's a wide range of views within Christianity, and these are all based on different interpretations of the Bible.

What we're going to do now is do some multiple choice quickfire questions based on that.

And then we're going to do some longer questions to test our understanding.

So let's get started.

All churches allow women to lead worship.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

That is false, not all churches will allow women to lead worship.

Traditionally women would have remained silent in church.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

That's the traditional idea.

Some people still believe this today.

Women can become priests or bishops in the Roman Catholic church.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

That is false, in the Roman Catholic church you will not see women priests or bishops.

In some Roman Catholic churches women can deliver readings.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

So although they cannot lead worship in terms of being a priest or a bishop, they can deliver readings in church.

Many Protestant churches allow women to lead worship.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

So many Protestant churches will ordain female vicars.

Women can become priests or bishops in the Orthodox church.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is false.

It is very unlikely that in an Orthodox church you'll see a woman priest or bishop.

Many Christians will interpret St.

Paul's teachings as a reflection on the society at the time.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

So the teaching to keep the quiet in church, many Christians say that was for that time and it is not to be understood in the same way now.

Some Christians will believe women should be able to lead worship as Jesus taught equality.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

So some Christians say, well they should be able to lead worship, Jesus taught about equality between men and women, so it doesn't matter who leads worship.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

Now what we're going to do is do some questions to bring that together so you've got something written down, which brings together the ideas of women in worship.

So what I'd like you to do is spend about five minutes on these three questions.

What is the traditional role of women in worship? Where does this view come from? What is the Roman Catholic view on the role of women in worship? Where does this come from? And what is a Protestant view on the role of women in worship? Where does this view come from? So sentence starters there again for you, if you need them.

And what we're going to do is after five minutes, once you're done, you're going to unpause the video and we're going to go through the answers.

So pause now, unpause when you are ready for corrections.

Okay, if you can see the screen, I'm going to assume that you already for corrections.

Well done for working so hard.

Let's go through them together.

Please make sure you put a different coloured pen out, ready to go through it.

So the traditional role of women in worship is that they should not speak in church.

This view comes from a quotation from St.

Paul, which states that women should remain silent in church.

The Roman Catholic role of women in worship is that they can take part in church services, but not lead worship.

This view comes from the idea that men and women are equal, but have different strengths, and since Jesus's disciples were all men only men can have positions of authority in the church.

And the Protestant role of women in worship is that some believe they can lead worship.

This view comes from the idea that men and women are equal in the eyes of God.

So if you need to make any corrections, please pause the video and do so now.

When you unpause we're going to look at a specific example of a woman being ordained as a bishop in the Church of England for the first time.

So pause to make corrections, unpause when you are ready.

We're now going to look at the case study of Libby Lane, who is the first female bishop ordained in the Church of England.

Women were allowed to become vicars from 1994 in the Church of England, and it wasn't until 2014 when they allowed female bishops.

A bishop is someone in higher authority than a vicar.

Now Libby Lane is the first ordained female bishop.

And in the year that followed her being ordained, 16 other people were ordained as a bishop and eight of those were female.

So we're starting to see within the Church of England, more acceptance into women as positions of authority.

And this is based on Church of England teachings that men and women are considered equal in value and can have interchangeable roles and can provide help with worship.

So this is, she's a very important figure for many people within Christianity, because her ordination as a bishop showed that many people within the Church of England see women and men as equals with the ability to make an equal contribution to the church.

So essentially, for those people within the Church of England, they believe that women are just as able to lead worship as a man is.

However, there has been controversy surrounding her ordination.

So for example, not every church believes that women should lead worship, let alone be bishops.

So we have many churches, the Roman Catholic church, who disagree with women becoming priests, vicars, bishops, et cetera, and therefore would find this controversial.

Even within the Church of England there were people who did not agree with her ordination, and many people who still disagree with her ordination.

One priest, and in her ordination service actually protested the decision during the ceremony itself and actually said, it's not in the Bible, was part of his protest.

He believes that scripture does not allow women to lead worship.

So even within the Church of England, Libby Lane can be seen as a controversial figure, but many people see her as a really great step forward into women leading worship in the church.

What we're going to do is some multiple choice quickfire questions.

We're going to move on, have a look at those and see how you get on, okay.

Libby lane is an ordained Roman Catholic bishop.

True or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is false.

She's not an ordained Roman Catholic bishop.

Libby Lane is an ordained bishop in the Church of England.

Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

She's an ordained bishop in the Church of England.

Libby lane became the first female bishop in the Church of England in 2014.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that it's true.

So it has happened in 2014, 20 years after women were allowed to be vicars in the Church of England.

The Church of England has allowed women to be vicars since 1994.

True or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

If you were able to do quick math from my last sort feedback, you'd be able to get that one correct.

Everyone was happy about Libby Lane's ordination.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is false.

We actually saw, didn't we, when we read about how someone during her ordination actually protested and said, it's not in the Bible.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

We're now going to move on to a longer question, just to bring all of that together, So I want you to complete the following question.

Spend about four minutes on this.

I want to use these key terms, draught a paragraph explaining who Libby lane is and why she's an important figure.

So I want you to use the words bishop, ordained, controversial, equal, Church of England and first.

I want you to spend about four minutes on this.

Pause video now for me please, then unpause when you're ready to look at a model answer.

Okay, here's my model answer.

So Libby lane was the first female bishop in the Church of England.

She was ordained in 2014, 20 years after the Church of England first allowed women to be priests or vicars.

She strongly believes that men and women are equal and that everyone is made in the image of God.

Libby Lane has been seen to be controversial by some who do not believe that women should be allowed to be bishops.

This led to someone protesting her right to be a bishop during her ordination.

So if you need to make any corrections, if you want to add anything more then you can please pause the video now, make these corrections and unpause when you have finished.

Okay, I'm just going to appear up on the screen.

It will take awhile, it always does.

Okay, so thank you so, so much for taking part in our lesson today, for working so hard.

We've looked at quite a few different views within Christianity on the role of women and you've completed some questions, and you also have a really good example of a case study, Libby lane, who you can actually use in exam questions as well as evidence, such as quotations.

So again, I want to say a huge big, thank you.

If you are interested, then the next lesson we'll be looking at, lesson eight, will be on the status of women within Islam.

So thank you again, hope to see you soon, goodbye.