Fragmented Voices with Guilt and Apologies: Interrogating Narratives on Ordination of Women in Nagaland Churches

Introduction

This article is an empirical research that engages with gender ‘constructs’ in religious organizations, particularly the ways in which Naga women theologians negotiate their role in the church as ‘women’ in Nagaland. The state of Nagaland, geographically located in the Northeast part of India, is a Christian majority state with 87.93% Christian population (Nagaland State Census, 2011). Church is one of the powerful stakeholders in Naga civil society. Churches in Nagaland have very high attendance with everyday church services catalogued throughout the week, such as youth church service, service for women’s department, church service for men, general Sunday devotional service, special services and Sunday school for children, and so on. This article delves into the narrative of Naga women theologians working in the two associations under the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC): in the capacity of associate pastors, teachers, lectures, children’s missions, educational missions, women pastors, non-senior pastors in the church ministry and in other missions. I analysed the narratives to understand the relationship between the process of licencing-ordination and gendered hierarchical structure of the church. Besides the narratives that emerged from the field, NBCC statistics data that list the name of the associations and the number of churches affiliated to each association, the approximate number of baptized members of each association and the total baptized members in NBCC overall are used to draw inferences from the statistics for the research. I looked at the churches directory that chronologically records the name of associate pastors, senior pastors, women pastors, the names of ordained ministers in the churches and the number of ordained ministers in the associations, to assess and evaluate the proportion of women pastors and women Reverends in the two associations under NBCC. Observations were made in the community for a prolonged length of time, and churches under the two associations were attended at different intervals between June 2018 and January 2020 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a gap in the research during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, and interviews were conducted during the initial months of 2021. The NBCC office which is located at Kohima is the apex body that unites all the Baptist associations and churches in Nagaland. The denomination of NBCC is a Baptist Christian denomination in India. NBCC was formally named in 1953, but the genesis of Christianity in Nagaland can be traced back to 1839 when American Baptist Churches came to Assam and the Naga Hills as part of their Church mission. It was this American mission that introduced Christianity to the Nagas and laid grounds for later churches in the Naga Hills. The first church in Nagaland was established in 1872 by an American missionary Rev. E. W. Clark with just 28 baptized members (Nagaland Post, 2019). ‘NBCC has its affiliation with the Baptist World Alliance and is the association of the council of Baptist Churches of Northeast India’. Today, NBCC has 20 fully fledged associations and four associate-association members. Each association has many but varied numbers of churches within its ambit. The ‘Sümi Baptist Church Zunheboto (SBCZ)’, which is the Asia’s largest Baptist church and Asia’s second largest church is one of the 24 associations affiliated to NBCC. SBCZ is located at Zunheboto district Nagaland (Nurumi, 2017).

NBCC has 1661 churches in total, inclusive of the associate member churches. As per NBCC statistics 2018, in total, NBCC has around 648,523 baptized members. The 20 fully fledged associations are Angami Baptist Church Council, Sumi Baptist Akukuhou Kuqhakulu, Chakesang Baptist Church, Chang Baptist Lashong, Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdan, Council of Rengma Baptist Churches, Khiamniungan Baptist Churches Association, Sumi Aphuyemi Baptist Akukuhou Kuqhakulu, Konyak Baptist Bumeinok Bangjum, Lotha Baptist Church Association, Phom Baptist Christian Association, Liangmai Baptist Aruang, Nagaland Police Baptist Churches Association, Pochury Baptist Church Council, Kuki Baptist Association, United Sangtam Baptist Lithroti Ashimukhong, Yimchungru Baptist Boru Amukhungta, Western Sumi Baptist Akukuhou Kuqhakulu, Zeme Baptist Church Council and Zeme Baptist Association. Four churches that are affiliated to NBCC as associate members are City Church Kohima, Naga Christian fellowship Delhi, Association of Gorkha Baptist Churches Nagaland and Nagamese Baptist Churches Association (NBCC, 2021). The 20 associations are formed based on the sub-tribe Naga identities except for the Police Baptist churches association. The other four associate members of NBCC are not formed on the lines of tribes and have inter-tribe and mixed church-congregations. Churches within a particular association are not confined to one geographical location but are spread out across Nagaland and beyond, as in the case of Naga Christian Fellowship Delhi. Out of the 24 associations, this research focussed on two associations only: Association 1 = 167 churches, Association 2 = 149 churches; 316 churches in total. Cross references with other associations within and outside the ambit of NBCC are made to see the systematic patterns and gendered practice in Nagaland churches. Respondents for this research were mostly women who are currently working in the churches, missions or ministry in various capacities in the two associations studied under NBCC. Ethically, it is imperative to maintain utmost confidentiality both with the association name, church names and respondents’ names as the name of the association and church itself will by default disclose the names of the women employees of the particular church and association, given the minimal number of women employees. This will implicate Naga women theologians who had agreed to speak and participate in the research after much thought. Anonymity of the associations, churches and the women respondents would protect their vulnerable identities, would protect their jobs and their identity in the church or ministry where they continue to work even now.

Framework, History and Concepts

Very recently, a handful of Naga women theologians and academics have raised the need for gender equality in Nagaland churches; however, the prevalence of feminist theology in Nagaland churches is empirically unsubstantiated. So far, there has been no collective church women’s feminist movement in Nagaland. Narratives in this article are the hidden collective thought from fragmented groups of women in the church which has not given rise to a collective voice. Narratives came out in the form of hesitant voices with apologies and clarifications at different times, far from the organized output of women’s movements. Voices in fragments emerged from the hidden population who secretly yearn for equality in churches. Women who participated in the research said that they were justice-seeking but refrained from identifying themselves as feminists. Perhaps because the gap between secular and religious women is very wide and clearly separated in Nagaland churches (Hunt, 2009: 90). In the context of Nagaland churches, theology in praxis is antithetical to feminism. Albeit foggy and non-assertive, voices in fragments from Naga women theologians emerged on equality in promotions and parity of criteria between men and women in licencing and ordination processes in Nagaland churches. Most were uncomfortable with the feminist label, but the language all of them spoke resonates with critical feminist engagements. Most Nagaland churches allow women to preach with or without a theological qualification. Unlike the churches who prohibited both historically and today, there has been no prohibition on women standing in the church pulpit to preach the scriptures and the word of God in the churches. However, ordination in Naga churches has been reserved for men historically and is nearly absent today. Today, ordination and licencing for women is not on the same footing as men and is premised on the idea of natural inequality.

It was Gupta’s (1991) work that brought out a clear difference between natural differences and social differences. Beteille’s (1983) work emphasized social inequalities that are misperceived to be natural and inherent by society, which is in actuality a social construction. Gender inequality is one such social inequality which is misconstrued as ‘given’ because the inequality is premised on the natural biological difference. Gender inequality is both social and political inequality which oppresses women and other minority categories in the gender spectrum. Beteille points out that ‘natural difference does not become inequality unless marked out by processes of culture’. The durability of social inequalities in many societies, such as the persistence of gender inequality across generations, is because the inequality that is socially constructed is represented and perceived as inequalities given by the nature. Thus, in the case of social inequalities between men and women existing in different forms, it is the natural difference, it is the anatomy of the body that gets amplified and gives anchor to the socially constructed ‘gender inequality’ (Beteille, 1983; Gupta, 1991: 5–9; Hunt, 2009: 87).

If one looks into the history of ordination of women around the globe, it was only in the early twentieth century that England began to permit women to be ordained ministers (McCready, 2006: 371). As per the United States’ 1970 census, only 3% out of the total clergy in America were women, which rose to around 10% in 1990 (Chaves, 1997: 87). Ireland in 1975 began licencing women to preach, a function which was earlier reserved for clergy men. Although this was a noted step towards accepting women as priests, for women in Churches in Ireland, there was still a difference between accepting women in important roles in the ministry and accepting ordained women priests on the same footing as men priests (McCready, 2006: 374). Hapdong Korea, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (GAPCK) is the largest Protestant denomination and the largest Presbyterian association with around 11,000 churches in its ambit. GAPCK has a rule against women as pastors, or as elders in the church committees, a role which is reserved for men (Gap, 2008: 230). KAPC (The Korean American Presbyterian Church), the largest Presbyterian Korean immigrant Church in the United States, established in 1978, derives its theological conservativeness from its parent Church in Korea GAPCK. Following its parent Church, KAPC does not allow women’s ordination (Gap, 2008: 232).

‘Women-church’ is a feminist concept that was formulated in the context of The Catholic Church, which later became a framework for other denominations as well. Mary B. Lynch’s effort in 1975 ¹ made women declare their rights to practise in ministry and called out the injustices that denied women the right to ordination (Hunt, 2009: 86). Movements like ‘women-church’ strive to create an ‘ecclesial space’ for Christian women that will move them from ‘margin to centre’ (Hunt, 2009: 94). After the 1975 conference at Detroit, in 1978, the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) was formed and both Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Mary E. Hunt stressed the theological approaches and a feminist future for catholic women that is inclusive towards shared leadership and the participation of women in the decision making of the church (Fiorenza, 1976, cited in Hunt, 2009: 86–87). ‘Women-church as a rhetorical device’ to all Christian women is an inclusive model that pursues the ‘discipleship of equals’ (Hunt, 2009: 94–95). It was Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (1992) who coined the word Kyriarchy. Kyriarchy denotes the problematic of a hierarchical system beyond sexism in Catholic ministry. The kyriarchal model according to Fiorenza allows women into a system but does not allow them to work along the men or at par with men (Fiorenza, 1976, cited in Hunt, 2009). Most Nagaland churches follow a kyriarchal framework in their functioning especially in their processes of licencing and ordination. With the desirable theological qualifications, the association and the church allow entry to Naga women to the system but not in the apex and key positions of the churches and associations. Because Naga women are visible employees in the associations and the churches, the first impression the system gives out is the reading of it as an inclusive model, but in actuality, the model has certain positions and titles reserved for men only. ‘Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s work demonstrates how feminist studies in religion are dangerous to those who seek to preserve Kyriarchy and liberating to those who envision change’ (Hunt, 2009: 98).

Gendered Licencing

In Nagaland churches, there are pastors who are not licenced and pastors who are licenced. All church pastors will not necessarily have a ministry licence. For a pastor to be licenced, requires certain years of experience as pastors with good conduct, good moral and sound social reputation. Out of the many functions, there are three main ordinances performed by both licenced pastor/minister and Reverend, which cannot be performed by an unlicensed pastor: (a) conducting Christian weddings, (b) baptizing and (c) administering the Lord’s Supper.

It is the differentiated criteria for licencing and ordination processes for men and women pastors in Nagaland churches that the article attempts to question. Years of experience as licenced pastors in the church or experiences in mission as licenced ministry are counted in the evaluation process of ordination. In both the associations, 6 years of experience as pastor and 10 years of experience as missionary for men is an essential requirement for granting of ministerial licence. However, for women, the requirement is approximately 16–20 years as women pastors and more than 20 years as missionaries in the ministry. If, instead, the practical experience is in a church-run Christian academic institution as lecturers or college administrators, then the requirement for licenced ministry increases to approximately 10 years for men and more than 20 years for women. Although there is no difference in salary based on gender, salary pay scales are not fixed strictly based on qualifications.

There is no standardized rule that fixes the number of years of experience required to become a licenced pastor. It varies depending on many factors such as moral conduct, societal reputation, gender identity and so on. While it takes 5–10 years of experience as pastors for men to become a licenced pastor, it generally takes 20–25 years for women in mission ministry to become a licenced minister and approximately 16–20 years for women pastors to get a ministerial licence. A middle-aged Naga woman with a doctoral degree in theology heading a theological college saw many of her male students passed out of college getting ministerial licences before she was granted a ministerial licence. Female theologian students who had passed out shared the same fate as her because they belonged to the same category of being a ‘woman’. Some of the passed out male students whom she taught were given ministerial licences after 6 years of experience as pastor in the church, while she waited more than 20 years to get her ministerial licence. She had lost count of how many of her male students got pastoral licences before her. Her qualifications, outstanding contributions, good conduct, in addition to her more than 20 years of service to the association did not reduce the time lag as her gender identity prolonged the wait. The time lag between the first batch of male students who got licenced and the time she was granted her ministerial licence was a good 15 years. By the time she was granted a pastoral licence, some of her male students were ordained from being a licenced pastor to being a ‘Reverend’. Another woman faculty theologian reiterates a similar case where many of her male students got their ministerial licence before her.

Women Pastors: Colloquial, Suffix and Bracketed

In the bureaucratization of church as an institution and with the birth of religious professions, there is a gendered perception that men are more endowed with innate authority and spiritual command over the community of the church. According to Gupta (1991), biological difference, whether it be sex or race, is ‘amplified in relation to social perception and practices’. These natural differences although ‘not retained in their natural forms’ are amplified into social differentiation that has social relevance (Gupta, 1991: 5–9). There are few associations under NBCC that still disallow women the right to ordination in the ministry. One association ² in Nagaland which is not associated nor affiliated with NBCC holds an open standpoint that it is against the teaching of Christianity to ordain women in the church. Although this particular association lies outside the targeted study group since it is not within the ambit of NBCC, the data stumbled upon during the research fieldwork were found worthy of mention in the study. Thus, in this particular association, one will not find women’s names in the history of the list of ordained ministers because there is no concept of ordaining women in this association.

Naga society is both patrilineal and patriarchal, and a typical Naga family is headed by a man whether it is the husband or the father. The legacy of Patriarchy is replicated in church institutions where the church is led by a male Reverend or a male-senior pastor. Hierarchy in churches is directed by gender differences rather than qualifications. The senior pastor is normatively a male pastor while the associate pastors are younger male pastors and women pastors. Even if women pastors are much older, more experienced and more qualified, by the tacit norm of gender identity, the younger male pastor can supersede them and becomes the senior pastor of the church. In this case, gender hierarchy supersedes age-hierarchy, although gerontocracy is applicable in the hierarchy of male pastors. A woman pastor is only an associate pastor to the senior male pastor of the church, even if the woman pastor is licenced. Women ministers who are granted licences can conduct weddings, but it is usually the male pastor who conducts weddings in the church. If the male pastor in question is willing to share the opportunity, only then do the women pastors conduct weddings on rare countable occasions. In cases where the male-senior pastor or the Reverend agrees to share the opportunity, many times, the parents and family of the bride and the groom insist that the male-senior pastor officiates and conducts the wedding ceremony. There has been an embedded belief that men pastors have more spiritual authority and possess more of an aura of spirituality than women pastors. Rarely does one see women ministers administering the Holy Communion and Holy Baptism in the big churches of Nagaland. Women pastors would be assisting but not lead these important ordinances, and this practice continues even after women pastors are granted ministerial licence. Thus, the issue is more than occupying the position or the right to licencing and ordination. The article brings forth the problematic of societal approval in accepting women’s authority in the church’s key leadership positions.

A young unmarried female lecturer in one of the theological colleges in Nagaland said she was addressed as miss-la by her students, while the male lecturer was addressed as ‘Sir’. La is a suffix meaning female in Ao Naga dialect. In Sumi Naga dialect, women pastors are addressed as Pastorni or Pasini (Pastorni is pronounced as pasini) by the congregation members and the community. In Ao Naga dialect, women pastors are referred to as Pastorni-la. Here, ni and ni-la are suffixes that denotes the gender identity of the pastor. Pastorni, Pastorni-la and Pasini are colloquial words which mean female pastor. Naga women theologians and ministers, who are granted licences and have become licenced pastors equivalent to men pastors, are still addressed by a gendered colloquial terms rather than being addressed by a formal term like pastor. The formal word ‘Pastor’ is used to address the men pastors in the church. In the printed church programmes, both in English and Naga dialects written in Roman English lettering, even when women are addressed as ‘Pastor’, they are normally bracketed as ‘women pastor’, that is, Pastor (Women). One female Pastor in one of the big churches in Nagaland said,

Pastors with the same qualifications and experiences should be treated equally irrespective of gender, which is generally followed in other professions. Acceptance will gradually come. I took the charge of ‘proxy’ senior Pastor for two years when our senior Pastor was on leave and the church trusted me. There is a false notion prevailing amongst the people that certain nature of the job demands men and not women, but work is work. Work has nothing to do with being a man or a woman.

The prescription of a naturalized role of Naga women as housewives, mothers and other domestic roles seems to be the priority role for women as set by society. Responses to the question why Naga women theologians, with the same qualifications and experiences as the men pastors, do not hold positions commensurate with that of senior pastors emerge from a linear narrative of motherhood: women’s maternity leave each time she gives birth, long infant care responsibilities, family responsibilities, inability to be mobile often and the inability to travel alone. These narratives leverage men’s candidature. Motherhood, which is seen as a blessing to the institution of family but a disadvantage to ministerial professions by the community, opens up exclusive doors for men to lead the church and to carry key responsibilities in the associations. All married women working in the two associations who participated in the research got only 3–4 months maternity leave. They cited disadvantages of being a woman in the ministry as the community views motherhood as a burden that cannot be shared with the burden of the churches, with the church members ranging from 2000 to 10,000 baptized members in each church. Lest we forget, Nagaland responded with violent protests against 33% reservations for women in Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections in 2017. The near absence of women in the socio-political sphere in Naga society is not just limited to religious leadership as ‘Reverends’. There is an absence of Naga women visible as role models in politics (Achumi, 2019: 21). The naturalized imagery of women has glided into religious spaces in Nagaland (Achumi, 2019: 16). Gender disparity in Nagaland’s churches has its roots in the patriarchal cultural norms of the Naga society that differentiates men and women premised on the biologist view of human beings.

Glass Ceiling Effect: But on the Entire Category ‘Women’

As it stands today, it is not just the minority women but the entire category of Naga ‘women’ theologians that struggle to break the glass ceiling. Intersectionality within the category ‘women’ may emerge in the future of feminist theology in Nagaland, but as of today, both intersectionality and feminist theology are far from the lived experiences of women in NBCC. In NBCC, Naga women pastors and Reverends face unspeakable societal hurdles with regard to the practice of ordinances by licenced and ordained ministers. Until 2021, one of the associations had issued ministerial licence to only seven women. However, the granting of licence did not guarantee a key position in the church. Instead of having the opportunity to lead the church as a senior pastor, many highly qualified women with MTH degree (Master of Theology) and PhDs in theology are mostly given mission field jobs, librarians, mission secretary, education mission: Principal of a college, lecturers in a theological college run by the association and so on. They are mostly involved in various missions run by the church and the associations, but are not appointed in the senior pastoral positions of the church wherein the senior pastor’s main role is to consecrate the pivotal church programmes of the church community. The theological colleges, whether run by the associations or autonomous, are not free from vertical hierarchy. One woman lecturer in the theological college which is run by one of the associations said,

I had more years of experience in terms of seniority and I was next in line to be the academic Dean, but they gave it to my junior simply because he is a man and I a woman.

The glass ceiling effect in Nagaland churches is not just confined to licencing and ordination but spreads across other missions and ministry functions. Even with the thus far judicious advances and micro-dialogues for women ordination in Nagaland churches, it is a norm that women ministers are usually in-charge for women’s departments of the church. Positions like Sunday School Supervisors and Children’s Missions are filled particularly by women. Whereas, Executive Secretary, which is the apex position of each association, or senior pastor of the church is reserved for men only: an unspoken rule that has been consistently the historical practice of the churches in both the associations under NBCC. Other than qualifications and experience, a hard-earned reputation in the society, leadership quality in the church and other implicit pre-requisites for holding high positions in the church and the associations are part of what it means to be a ‘man’. It is true for both men and women theologians that teaching in colleges or serving in the missions take longer duration to get licenced than those who practise directly as pastors in the churches. However, even in the education ministry, women take much longer to get licenced than men. At one theological college, a male Principal of the college took 10 years to get a ministry licence, while a senior woman faculty who took charge as Principal of the college took 22 years to become a licenced minister. Male faculty members who get licenced are usually transferred to big churches where they are able to practise their licence as senior pastors, while for women faculty members, even if they are granted a ministerial licence, they continue to serve in the education missions as faculty with barely any opportunity to practise the ordinances. The senior female Principal who was licenced after 22 years is senior to the male Principal in both age and service. She now administers the Lord’s Supper to her students and staff at a small in-campus college church, while the male Principal, who is now transferred and is the senior pastor at one of the biggest churches in Nagaland, is given the legit authority to practise all the ordinances at the society’s biggest church of more than 31,000 baptized members. Associate pastors can be men or women. As revealed through practices, today, few Naga women theologians have climbed further than the associate pastor position, but working in subordination to the senior male pastor. Thus, the pre-requisites for senior pastor are not qualification but one’s gender identity that decides who will be the senior pastor.

All-Male Licencing and Ordination Committees: The Optics of Surveillance

Gap’s (2008) work pointed out the near absence of women pastors, and male dominance in the leadership positions in Korean churches in New York. ³ The danghe in Korean immigrant churches, comprising elders and senior pastors, makes pivotal decisions in important committees: finance, missions, and hiring of pastors and associate pastors. Male dominance in danghe in Korean immigrant churches is the central model of a rigid gender hierarchy in church bureaucracy and theology (Gap, 2008: 225). This model is found in Nagaland churches as well. In Nagaland, the word ‘elder’ usually carries a mental imagery of men whether it is at the community level or in the church. In both the associations in Nagaland, the licencing committees who are responsible for issuing Pastoral licence and ordination committee are exclusive to only men members.

In this section and discussions elsewhere, pronouns like ‘he’ and ‘his’ are used deliberately without a mention of ‘she’ and ‘her’ because historically ordination in NBCC has been about men. Only in the twenty-first century, pronouns such as ‘she’ are being added to the lexicons of licencing and ordination in Nagaland. In NBCC, not all pastors are ordained but only few. The all-male body of pastors called ‘Church Leaders Fellowship’ (CLF) is responsible for issuing pastoral licences, and there is a separate all-male committee for ordination. The committees refer to the yezhabo (constitution) for criteria of licencing which have been changing over the years. However, the ‘experience’ criterion is neither clearly defined nor fixed, a fact which has opened up a window for arbitrary and whimsical decisions. A couple of respondents from the local theological community spoke about the arbitrary selection process even for men pastors, although to a much lesser extent than women pastors, wherein younger pastors were ordained and the older licenced pastors retire while waiting for ordination. In both associations, there was no standardized timeline and procedures for the process of ordination. There is no application system for ordination in either association and even if one applies voluntarily, the church can turn it down. Experience of 20 to 25 years with slight variations is desirable for ordination. Instead of following a standardized rule for ordination, the title of ‘Reverend’ is given to those who are ‘deserving of the title’ as decided by the ordaining committee. This explains the reason why there is no application system, since it is the ordaining committee who decide through constant observation of the pastor’s or the minister’s participation in the community, churches and associations. Disciplinary surveillance for granting a licence and a Reverend title is pervasive, and one is unlikely to be granted licence or ordained as Reverend if he has any record of disobedience to the church rules during his service, refusing the posting allotted to him, refusing rural or interior village posting, not completing the duties and responsibilities given to him by the church authorities, questioning the church’s decision and raising voice against the church and so on. His service record of how he served the congregation and served the church will matter in the decision on his ordination in the ministry.

In Nagaland, there is no functional difference between a licenced pastor/minister and ordained ministers (pastors who have been granted the Reverend title). The ministerial functions for both are the same. Licenced pastors are those who have gained official status as pastors who can minister at Christian weddings, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and so on. Reverend performs the same functions, but in addition ‘Reverend’ is an honorary title that is consecrated to deserving ministers. To be a licenced pastor is a requirement for ordination but not all licenced pastors can become a Reverend. Only a few licenced pastors in ratio eventually become Reverend. The criteria and processes of ordination vary across countries and across denominations. In Naga Christian communities, an ordained Reverend is believed to have a profound aura of spirituality which is revered in the church community. An ordained minister enjoys theological and moral distinction in the church and so is believed to befit spiritual reverence. Different associations have different yezhabo (constitution) for licencing and ordination, but in both the associations I studied, licencing and ordination goes beyond the essential criteria written in the constitution. The all-male licencing committee and all-male ordination committee forms the central optics that surveils pastors in different churches and missions to validate licencing and ordination. Invisible but ever-present moral patrolling of pastors posted in different churches within the association is as important as assessing the pre-requisite qualifications and experiences. One associate woman pastor in one of the big churches in Nagaland said,

If one looks at the latest ordained ministers 2018 statistics of NBCC then there are more than 600 ordained men ministers, while women ordained ministers are a handful in the associations. Women Reverends are completely absent in some associations. You are asking me about the ratio but the gender gap is too wide to be talking about ratio now and perhaps for the next twenty years at least.

Although implicit, the life situations and family situations of the pastors and the missionaries are considered when issuing licence and granting ordinations. For example, if a woman has all the requisite criteria and years of experience but her husband is an alcoholic, her inability to bring her husband closer to the community of church and her husband’s alcoholism as a bad example to the community of church counts against her getting a ministerial licence. The same applies to those families that grapple with other social problems such as domestic violence, divorce, separation, gambling, extra marital affairs, drug addiction, substance abuse, if their children elope and marry without the witness of the church, if their daughter gets pregnant outside wedlock and so on. Even if the pastor or the missionary is not directly involved, if the immediate members of the family – sons, husband, daughters and wife – do not conform to the moral norms of the society, then they are not granted licence or ordination.

Although this patriarchal all-male committee gaze is upon the theological community in general, women missionaries whose husband or family members are not conforming to both written and tacit norms of the church are judged more harshly. This is also because most men pastors get their licence early on in their career and much earlier than women missionaries, while women struggle to get pastoral licence for decades even after their mid or nearing retirement in their career. In that sense, the moral surveillance on woman is far longer, wherein this prolonged gaze over her own and her family life-styles impacts her chances of getting licenced and ordination negatively. This moral gaze extends from the committees to the societal gaze which later translates into societal approval. ⁴ Although the licencing and ordination committee constantly assesses pastors and missionaries in the ministry, the identity of the members of the ordination committee are not very public. One woman associate pastor who was recently licenced said,

We met the committee members only during the orientation programme which is held after granting the licence or after ordination. Those who attend the orientation will talk, so people get to know but it is not public knowledge.

NBCC follows a two-stage ordination process: (a) licencing and (b) ordinations of ministers/Reverends. The two-stage process to ordination makes it almost unachievable for Naga women theologians to be ordained as ‘Reverend’, since the differential increased years of experience requirements for women ministers begins right at the first stage of licencing. The time that men theologians take, that is, 20–25 years, to get ordained, which is the second process, is the same duration of almost 20–25 years that women theologians require to get licenced for the first process. The only woman who was ordained got her ordination after 33 years of her service in the ministry. There is only one ‘ordaining committee’ for all the churches within one association. In the all-male committee – (a) the CLF for pastoral licencing and (b) ordination committees – there was no single woman member representation due to male exclusivity. Unless women’s representation figures in such committees it is unlikely that the existing licencing and ordination gap between men and women in church institutions will narrow down.

One Woman Ordained: Nominal or Real?

Hunt (2009) argued how ‘biological maleness as qualification for ordination’, and women ‘minus the anatomy’ denied catholic women the right to be ordained even with the theological degrees and all pre-requisites fulfilled for ordination (Hunt, 2009: 87). In the past, Naga women were not ordained as Reverend in either of these two associations under NBCC. Today, out of the two associations, one association has not ordained even a single woman so far, while the other association has ordained just one woman as Reverend. This sole woman Reverend figuring in the statistics indicates that there is no constitutional reason in at least in one of the two associations that women cannot be ordained. The evidence is that the two associations consisting of 316 churches in total (NBCC office records of 2021) have produced only one woman Reverend over one and half centuries after the arrival of Christianity. So far, association 1 has ordained 40 ministers and association 2 has ordained 50 ministers (NBCC News, 2019: 7). That means that, out of the total 90 ordained ministers from the two associations, only one woman has been ordained in the history of both the associations, and 89 ordained ministers are all men. This one woman who was ordained has not been given a position in the church but was offered a librarian position in a theological college run by the association. She is a token woman with no position in the church. What good are the ordinances of conducting Christian weddings, baptizing and conducting the Lord’s Supper to a college librarian? In this case, ministerial ordination is conferred, but the opportunity to serve the people in the church is withheld, which disallows her licencing practice. She was also made the college promoter. The portfolio called the college promoter never existed earlier, but the position was created to accommodate her in the college: a position which has no clear functions and of less utility to an ordained Reverend. The association would rather create a new position to accommodate her elsewhere than in a large mainstream church. One respondent who works for the association said,

The role assigned to the position ‘college promoter’ is to find donors and sponsors but in actuality the position is redundant or defunct as the association channels different ways to do this task. There is not much work for her at least currently. However, prayer support to the college is readily received from her whenever needed. The association found her ‘deserving’ to be ordained because she never married; she kept herself holy and served God all her life.

A wider analysis of ordaining this sole woman unpacks the ambivalence between the disapproval of ordaining women and the need to acknowledge her 33 years of contribution to the ministry and the association. By the time she got ordained, she was above 60 years of age. Perhaps ordaining her was not intended to use her leadership in the church as Reverend, but rather to honour her contribution. The Reverend title given to her is an honorary title which she could not put into practice. Therefore, whether her ordination can be envisioned as empowerment for Naga women theologians is questionable. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1975 said, ‘ordination of women cannot simply mean their addition and integration into the clergy but implies a psychological, structural and theological transformation of the church’ (Fiorenza, 1976: 100, cited in Hunt, 2009: 86).

Conclusion

In Nagaland’s churches, ‘the call’ for women is predominantly confined to the spiritual gift of prophesying, visions, healing, nurturing missions like children missions, food committee, flower committee, orphanage, evangelism, teaching, associate/women pastors, educationist and so on. It seems that the theological calling to be the key authority in the bureaucracy of the association such as executive secretary, important finance committees, pastoral and ordination committees, senior pastor, and so on is reserved for men only. The institutionalization of faith in Nagaland struggles with gendered roles and gendered relations. The handful of women pastors in Nagaland churches who are granted licences are still prevented from practising the licence, as the anointing of male pastors is considered to be more than that of women pastors. The near absence of ordained women in the two associations suggests the prevalence of an invisible barrier in the right to ordination and advancement of theologian women in Nagaland churches. Women heading the church and heading the associations disrupts the subordinate position of women and transgresses the patriarchal Naga customs and traditions. This article exposes how Naga women in apex positions above men are not in the design of religious and political life of Naga society. Theological qualifications that should actually bring parity do not disrupt the gendered hierarchical design of licencing and ordination. The rich narrative in this article has opened up wide scope for future feminist researchers on the denial of women’s agency in key positions in the churches and in practising the functionalities of licenced ministers, even after the granting of ordination.