10-2-16 Women In Society

Summation By Rev. Jacqueline Henry

First of all I’d like to say thank you very much again for inviting me. Duncan, thank you for what you’ve said.

The Bible is so important. We have talked about wars and rumours of wars and atrocities that were done in the name of Christ by the church in the past, in the history. But they were times when people had stopped reading their Bibles. When people didn’t understand the only Bible they had in Latin, when they spoke English. When people don’t read their Bible that’s when things go wrong.

But today we all have the opportunity to know what God is saying and I think that today God is speaking to men and women the message, the calling of Jesus, is to men and women.

Times have changed; women are in a different position in society. The gospel message is for all of us, men and women. Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey what I command, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever: the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, because he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit who will come on his disciples when he is ascended to his Father in heaven. And when we read about that time, we know that the disciples met together to pray every day in the upper room. Those present praying each day were Peter, John, James, Andrew; Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (Acts 1:1214).

And then next we read, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:14). They were all there, the men and the women. And the Holy Spirit came down:

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house . . . They saw what.. seemed to be tongues of fire (and) all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

God is not dead, Jesus is not dead, and nor is the Spirit. Jesus sent the Spirit to all of us and now the time is right when we should all be filled with the Spirit and tell others about Jesus. Amen.

Concluding Remarks By Chairman

Thank you Jacquie for that summing up. Well Ladies and Gentlemen; I hope you feel that we have indeed seen two sincere perspectives presented to us, examining the role of women in the church.

I must, of course, leave it to you, the listeners, I thank you incidentally for being a very good audience, well behaved tonight, to make up your own mind as to what the Bible has to say about the role of women in the church in this socalled Christian era. We’ve had some discussion on the meanings of that word. And so on behalf of the organisers then, I do hope you’ve enjoyed being here.

There are just a few final announcements I would like to make. If you have any further questions or points you wish to make, then please leave your written questions in the box provided, or with the stewards. But if you want a reply in any way, do please make sure that your name and address is clearly printed so that either Duncan or Jacquie can send you some information on the question that you have asked.

A transcript of the evening will be provided, and if you’d like a copy then please use the form, which has been given to you. You will find on all the seats there is a form, or you can use the back of the invitation to be here this evening. There is a freepost address there. The cost of the transcript is estimated to be £1.50 including postage, so we would be grateful if you could please send a postal order or cheque to that value when ordering your transcript of this evening’s discussions.

Now you will have observed I hope, that entry to the hail this evening has been quite free to the public. However, there are donation boxes at the exits and if you feel able to make a contribution, however small, to defray some of the costs involved this evening, that would be very much appreciated by the organisers

You will notice that Duncan has provided a booklet. It’s entitled ‘A Woman’s Place, A Biblical Discussion,’ and clearly he’s covering a number of points that he has raised this evening, perhaps in far greater detail there than he was able to present to you in his discussions.

Now Duncan also mentioned that at the back is a literature stand; there’s a lot of booklets and leaflets there. There’s information on the correspondence course that he was talking about, so if you would like to cast your eye over it before you go, please do so. Any of the booklets there are available, as I have said, quite free of charge.

And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, it finally remains for me to thank Duncan and to thank Jacquie for putting so clearly their points of view, to thank you for coming, and to wish every one of you a very safe journey to your homes. Good night.