Okome and Renne (2013) highlight the ambiguous position of the church and the larger society on the ability and purity of women with regards to power and leadership position in Aladura churches in Nigeria and diaspora. The authors compare the partriarchical dominance of leadership in the church with the larger society where women are not easily accepted as overall leader except for the female folk and conclude that such partriarchal hegemony has been broken by a few number of charismatic female church founders and leaders like Abiodun Akinsowon, madam Olatunrinle, madam Akanke Igbalaolu. The number of charismatic female founders and leaders in Aladura has increased over time. The current role of Women in the organizational Structure of C&S is a shift from what it was in the past when every arm of the church structure was the exclusive preserve of the male. Females were restricted from taking part in church worship during their menstrual period and were not considered significant at decision making that pertained the church.219 Within the restrictions placed on women in the church, their positive contribution to the progress of the church is recognized. In this regard, CSMC established Women Council that is responsible for female affairs. The Council convenes women conferences where welfare matters and spiritual progress of female members are discussed. The Women leader heads the council that comprises the secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, financial secretary, assistant financial secretary, auditor, adviser and a public relation officer. At the general conference, the head of women council convenes a general meeting of women during which reports from various districts and zones are presented and deliberated on. The secretary submits report of its annual meeting at the General Conference for further deliberation.
Women under the auspices of Women Council take active part in the general conference where decisions are taken on general matters of the Church. At the general conference,
218 Ibid.
219 Interview with Ade Okuribido, 25 May, 2012, Ibadan.
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women delegates contribute to discussions on topical issues that are brought before the highest decision making body of the church. However, women are not ranked at par with their male counterparts. The position of the spiritual leader of the church is an exclusive preserve of men. Other tiers of the structure, namely zonal, district and local churches are headed by men. In churches established by charismatic women, the women founders delegate the highest ranked male members as representatives at the district, zonal or general conference. Although they cannot say the benediction after congregational prayer, they can perform such task in the congregation of females. A recent trend in the role of women in C&S is the fact that women are allowed to walk up to the Pulpit and read bible lessons during worship. Women who possess the ability to speak in the public and have demonstrated at various capacities in the church, their sound knowledge of the bible, are allowed to deliver sermons during congregational worship.
Female bands (egbe obinrin), provide opportunities for women to showcase their talents of organizing human and material resources. In their respective bands, they organize prayer sessions and welfare meetings during which individuals give short exhortations on moral and organizational matters that pertain women. At the administrative level of the church, women who the educational qualification are given the role of assistant secretary of the local church.
In some local churches, women are made treasurers, auditors and other administrative positions which were exclusive preserve of men. Observations have shown that women who occupy some administrative positions possess basic higher certificates and experiences required of them to function effectively. There are few cases where women are integrated into elders-in-council that deliberates on general matters of the local church. These are new initiatives which have evolved out of shared mutual understanding among members towards the progress of the church. Availability of highly educated male and female members in different professions has encouraged the church to try out female members in various administrative positions in the church. The constitution of the church does not prescribe what administrative role the female should play in church matters.
The integration of women into the administrative hierarchy has been met with opposition from members who insist that such initiative contradicts the faith traditions of the church.
However, the competency with which the appointed females carry out their administrative responsibilities influenced a significant number of members to support women in their negotiation for more responsibilities and leadership positions in the church. The absence of female paid prophets in C&S is, to a large extent, not borne out of the usual restrictions that
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are placed on females; their motherly role in the home and their daily duties to their respective husbands are critical factors that made the church to exempt them from that role. Similarly, paid prophets agreed to transfer, at any time and to any church location, in the course of discharging their duties, but this aspect, to a great extent, puts the female prophets on the edge.220
3.9.2 TCLA
Turner (1967:44-47) records the ambiguous place of women in the church, which contrasts with the Yoruba treatment of women in traditional administration and rituals. The importance of women in ministerial and non-ministerial work is given a considerable priority in the TCLAW. Although TCLA is a prophetic church that emphasizes ritual dirt of female, by exempting them from some rites and rituals, the church demonstrates a considerable sensitivity to gender issues. Observations show that the church’s position on female matters is ambiguous. The past and current primates of the church are men. There is much integration of women at the lower strata of ministers and officers of TCLAW. At each level of the hierarchy of the church, women are ranked at par with their male ministers. From the lowest to the highest stratum in the hierarchy, women are accorded their rights and privileges as their male counterparts except that they cannot be nominated or elected as primate. Men and women are actively involved in both ministerial and administrative functions of the church. Like their male counterparts, female ministers and laities of varying ages are members of decision making bodies including ministries in the church such as teaching, evangelical, children, prophetic, social, vocational, youth, and music and drama ministries. In spite of their integration into the hierarchy of the church and given ministerial position, their impurity to a large extent denies them some rights and privileges (Crumbley 2008).
The extent to which women negotiate their leadership role in TCLAW is seen in their membership of councils and bodies that take crucial decisions and formulate policies geared towards spiritual and administrative progress of the church such as supreme council of prelates, councils of Reverends, Pastors and Evangelists, the Primate-in-council, provincial executive council, elders’ governing council, ministers’ consultative council and TCLAW board of trustees. In spite of the fact that the church involves the female folk in a wide range of leadership positions and other church activities, it however restricts women from performing holy communion, holy wedlock, baptism by immersion, and burial unless the female minister has attained the age of sixty years and has also reached her menopause.
220 Interview with Adewale Gbadebo, 09 August, 2011.
155 3.9.3 CCC
The CCC recognizes the contribution of females both young and old to the spiritual and developmental programmes of the church. This is largely defined by the faith traditions of the church that are derived from biblical tradition and African religio-cultural influence on the church. The role of Felicia Yaman Oshoffa, the first wife of the pastor founder of CCC, in the formative years of the church as a “leading female figure” is a platform upon which the evolution of the spiritual and secular role of women in CCC can be adequately examined (Adogame 1999:23). Felicia Oshoffa was involved in the formation of the church, duly recognized for her prophetic sayings and also attended series of meetings in those early years of the church (Crumbley 2008:61).
The church recognizes the spiritual potentials of female members and encourages them to develop and manifest God given gifts during worship and for other spiritual matters that help the church to progress. Female members, like their male counterparts, demonstrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit as stated in the holy bible221. Females who manifest proven spiritual gifts and have consistently appropriated them in church activities are anointed and allowed to rise at par with their counterpart male prophets on the prophetic hierarchical ladder. The church traditions as entrenched in the church constitution allow females to take part in collective and individually assigned prayers and to read bible passages as may be instructed by a preacher222. They further demonstrate their importance in their contribution to biblical exegesis during bible study programme.
The church restrictions on females, to a great extent, limit the contribution of female in the church. They are restricted from the main stream of church administration and leadership as they cannot head a church, read the bible lessons, deliver a sermon, conduct church service, lead men in prayer, or say the grace after prayer as enjoined by Saint Paul in I Corinthians 14 Verses 34 and 35, and Genesis 3 Verse 16. Similarly, they are not allowed to come into the church, perform any spiritual function or stay very close to the church during their menstrual period until their menstrual flow stops and are sanctified following a laid down procedure223. Furthermore, a nursing mother can only be admitted into the church and allowed to partake in church activities after she must have stayed away from church for forty-one days after child’s birth.
221 I Corinthians 12 Verse 7-11; 14:39; and I Thessalonians 5 Verse 19.
222 CCC Constitution, 190, p.50.
223 CCC Constitution consists of various restrictions placed on female devotees, (189-194, p. 50-51).
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There is no doubt that various restrictions have greatly reduced the religious freedom and contribution of female to the spiritual progress of the church and administrative efficiency of the church leadership. However, observations have shown the response of the church leadership to emerging role of Christian women in church planting and growth, and the efforts of women in negotiating their leadership role in the CCC. The leading role of female spiritualists/prophetesses in the organization and execution of Wednesday special “service for seekers” is exemplary. During this special devotional service which, to borrow the idea of Bell (1997:115), I categorize as “rites of affliction”, visionaries mostly female prophets reveal divine instructions and ritual recipes to each devotee, which when carried out according to instructions are claimed to heal the afflicted, repel evil forces and restore lost glory and long awaited break-through. Attached to each visionary is a secretary who writes the divine message and “ritual recipes”224 that are carried out as a solution to the identified problem of the devotee.
Women leadership role and management strategy have evolved over the years but these have remained within the female folk. Women groups within the church have witnessed tremendous transformation where women demonstrate both gifted and acquired leadership and managerial skills. Though restricted from the main organizational hierarchy of the CCC worldwide, women fellowship group is socially visible in the CCC. For the first time since the emergence of CCC in 1947, women groups in the church organized their first international convention in Lagos, March 2000. Although its central focus is on bible study and prayer fellowship, women have a wide range of opportunities of exchanging ideas, experiences and developing their potentials in the course of performing individual and collective roles.
Through the fellowship platform, women negotiate their role in evangelism, counseling, seminars, hospitality, discipline in the home and church, intercessory prayers, women and youth empowerment.
3.10 Central Choir