Evangelical transformations of empowerment and female Romani pastors

This article analyses the empowerment of Romani women in Pentecostal societies in Bulgaria, discussing their diverse experiences in church lives, their opportunities, and the limitations they have as spiritual leaders. Using case material from my ethnographic research, I examine how Pentecostalism intersects with gender dynamics. In presenting the voices of pastors’ wives and female leaders, I reveal their areas of action and participation in formal, or less formal, religious practices. The text suggests that performing miracles is one of the key elements of the transmission of respect from male to female pastors and represents an attempt to achieve a cultural change through the adoption of evangelical Christianity. Moreover, the woman’s involvement in harmonizing social relations between church members, and between evangelists and non-evangelists has become important for non-religious aspects of everyday life. The main goal of the article is to foster an open discussion on the transformations of empowerment and female leadership, which are less studied topics within the much-explored research area of Romani Pentecostalism.

Faktor-faktor Penyebab Pendeta Perempuan Menjadi Korban KDRT di Kota Kupang Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur: Dari Perpespektif Gereja Masehi Injili di Timor

This study aims to determine the extent of the factors that cause female pastors to become victims of domestic violence and to what extent the Evangelical Christian Church in Timor has handled domestic violence experienced by female pastor, which can be used as a study and learning material in preventing and overcoming. Violence against female pastors. The method used in this research is qualitative research methods. The qualitative research approach was chosen because it emphasizes on phenomena/facts, the meaning of reasoning, certain situations (in certain contexts), or more research on matters related to the daily lives of women who are victims of domestic violence. From the results of the study, it was found that the factors causing domestic violence were due to jealousy from the husbands, as well as economic pressures. Causative factors also occur due to husbands who on average are drunkards and like to gamble, husbands who have less education than their wives, husbands who are hypersexual, husbands who experience psychological disorders, and also because wives are too busy with their service duties so that their husbands are feeling abandoned. The GMIT effort in this case carried out by UPP Pastoral as an extension of the MSH GMIT is considered not yet carrying out its mentoring function effectively to pastors who are victims of domestic violence. The victims felt that the services provided were still limited to providing advice without conducting any deepening of the problems experienced by the victims. For this reason, the functions of pastoral bodies in all spheres need to be optimized in a planned manner as a form of psychosocial support to prevent and break the chain of domestic violence. The research results also show that the church does not yet have a procedure or SOP that allows the recovery process for the victims to be carried out in a planned and systematic manner. The victims are also increasingly stressed because in addition to losing their income due to being withdrawn from their ministry as pastors, they also get negative stigma from their fellow pastors and congregations.

The challenges of being a female pastor: A case of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe

The focus of this article is to highlight some of the inherent gender injustices experienced by the female pastors within the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe (AFMZ). Drawing insights from the field research conducted in pursuance of a doctoral programme, the study foregrounds some of the barriers that women have had to endure when it comes to the issue of being ordained as a pastor. The article also interrogates the reasons used as a basis to exclude female pastors from the key decision-making bodies and to deny them the opportunity to preach at the national conference, which is the biggest gathering within the AFMZ. This is a qualitative study utilising interviews, focus group discussions and the observation method. The main findings emerging from this study reveal that whilst some positive changes have been made towards the inclusion of women in the pastoral ministry, however, there are still many gaps needing urgent attention before the AFMZ becomes a gender-inclusive and gender-equitable faith community.Contribution: This article foregrounds the challenges faced by female pastors in the AFMZ. It advocates for gender mainstreaming and gender inclusive policies in the AFMZ leadership structures. This is in sync with the focus of this collection, for which the main thrust is on women and religious leadership.

Role Stress. Experiences of Swedish Non-Lutheran Clergy

Background: About fifty percent of Swedish Non-Lutheran Clergy leave the vocation before retirement resulting in huge personal, financial, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social costs. The factors behind this substantial flood out has scarcely been researched. From the multifaceted problematic aspects of pastoral work, the aim of this study was to explore the clergy’s experiences of work stressors with the focus on Role-stress. Method: A qualitative approach with 19 open ended interviews was used and the interview material underwent qualitative content analysis. Results: Multiple external role-senders together with the individual pastor’s experienced, internal expectations and demands, generated different types of Clergy role-categories that surfaced during the analysis. These roles were accompanied by several role-stressors as apparent with the roles Servants of men and Servants of God and the presence of Vision Conflict. Further the pastor as the Church’s ultimately responsible person is plagued by Role-ambiguity and Role-confusion, and as the Proven trustworthy administrator struggling with Role-conflict. Family-work and Work-family conflicts, especially for female pastors, contributed to Work overload, this consequence also effecting the male colleagues during the generic attempts to meet as many of the Church members’ expectations as possible. The accumulated Work overload, together with a lowered level of Work Satisfaction, boosted the Turnover intentions. Conclusions: Mutual succinct information between employer and employee, active continuous communication and refined and updated organizational structure need to be coordinated in order to lower the level of experienced role stress and thus reduce the present substantial number of Clergy leaving the vocation prematurely.

The Gendering of Pastors in Contemporary Nordic Films: Norms, Conventions and Contemporary Views

The article examines how Lutheran pastors are gendered in six well-known Nordic films. Building on the theory of mediatisation of religion, the study argues for the need to look at how media shapes religion and gender for a thorough understanding of views on religion today. The film analyses show a connection between female pastors and less problematised forms of religion, but also traditional ways of undermining women in films. The films are argued to present a problematised religious view on sexuality, mostly connected to male pastors. Both aspects of gendering religion are tied to larger debates and discussions of religion and gender in the Nordic countries today. The article suggests that media have the potential to challenge traditional religious norms and to present their own norms, and highlights the need for further comparative studies.

Exploring Asian Female Pastors' Leadership Roles in the Church: Using Deborah's Story

Women in many Christian cultures are told that men are strong and should lead the church. Consequently, some women rationalize that they should not assume top leadership roles in the church. When they do assume such roles, many female pastors experience challenges. The purpose of our qualitative case study was to give voice to Asian female pastors (AFPs) by having them share challenges they experienced in the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church and relate those challenges to the experiences of Deborah in the biblical story found in Judges 4 and 5. Reported in this paper are the results of focus groups centered on a feminist commentary of Deborah's story. The voices of the AFPs speak to reconstruct traditional patriarchal theological thought.