Women's empowerment for leadership position within the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon : a missiological exploration.
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Date
2011
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Abstract
This study is designed to explore the ways in which PCC’s missional engagement with Agenda
PCC 2000 programme has effectively facilitated the empowerment of women for leadership.
Under girded with a missiological framework, the exploration draws on insights from the
concept of the Mission of God (Missio Dei) and the resulting understanding of humanity created
in the image of God (Imago-Dei) and Koinonia that are used to analyze issues of mission,
leadership and partnership. African Feminist pastoral theory and Feminist cultural hermeneutics
are applied as theories to further guide the study. The study argues that man and woman are
created with equal dignity and they both represent God’s purpose on earth. In the light of this
theological understanding the study calls into question the PCC exclusion of women from senior
leadership role within its ecclesial community.
The research question of this study s: What are the experiences of women being empowered for
leadership within PCC since the launch of the Agenda PCC 2000 programme? The
methodology of the study followed a “mixed method approach” that involves collecting and
analyzing more than one form of data in a single study as a design in addressing complex
questions in an interdisciplinary research. The process of data analysis involved making sense of
the empirical and non-empirical data to ascertain and understand the meaning of the data
obtained through interviews. Through textual criticism and discussion with women sharing their
experiences on empowerment and leadership positioning, revealed that some women are
included in leadership positions but they are alienated by the patriarchal ecclesial power
structures of the PCC.
If the PCC is to be effective in its missional and ecclesial endeavours’ it needs to embrace a
theology of partnership of women and men in leadership structures of the church. The study
asserted that if equal space and equity are given to both men and women to participate in
decision-making, then fresh approaches to leadership and understanding of mission will be
opened. The study concluded that the PCC can do much more in balancing the gender gap if it
follows the Trinitarian model of leadership by restructuring its male dominating pattern of
leadership that permeates its administrative structures.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.
Keywords
Presbyterian Church--Cameroon., Women clergy--Presbyterian Church--Cameroon., Presbyterian Church--Missions--Cameroon., Theses--Theology.