The real issue in the debate over women’s ordination is not whether men were created superior and women inferior. No Adventist scholar opposed to women’s ordination holds such a view. Rather, the real issue is whether God created men and women equal in nature and worth yet different in function, with the man called to serve in the servant headship role and the woman in the submissive helper role.

It is most unfortunate that the symposium fails to address this fundamental crucial issue, choosing instead arguments about superiority and inferiority–arguments that are foreign to the Bible and to the whole question of women’s ordination.

Those of us who for biblical reasons oppose the ordination of women to the headship roles of elders and pastors are often thought to be trying to deprive women of the opportunity to minister in the church. Nothing could be further from the truth. We strongly believe that if ever there were a time when the Ministry of Women Ministry of women in the church was needed, it is today. The many broken homes, single parents, and abused children inside and outside the church call today more than ever for the ministry of women who have been trained theologically and psychologically to meet such situations.

Simply stated, the issue is not whether women should minister in the church. On this point we are all in full agreement. Rather the issue is, should women serve in the headship roles of elders and pastors? The answer of Scripture is abundantly clear. In both the Old and New Testaments women were precluded from serving as priests, elders, and pastors, not because they were inferior or less capable than men, but because these offices entail the headship role of a spiritual father and not the supportive role of a spiritual mother. This does not mean that the church has no need of spiritual mothers. The contrary is true. As a home without a mother lacks the tender, loving care that only mothers can give, so a church without spiritual mothers lacks the warmth, care, and compassion that spiritual mothers can best give. Summing up, the biblical teaching is that men and women are equally called by God to minister in the home and in the church, but in different, complementary roles.