“The Church should be run on corporate principles, not just a free for all and there should be accountability”, declared the Rt. Rev. Ellinah Wamukoya, Bishop of Swaziland, to an appreciative audience at the recent Banquet to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Ordination of Women in the Diocese of Jamaica & The Cayman Islands. The Banquet was held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Friday October 24.
The Bishop, who was the guest speaker, recounted her own call to ministry and the ways in which her experience in the corporate world as a trained town and regional planner have been of help to her in the Ministry. She also spoke of the challenges she and other women ministers face as they proclaim the Word of God.
However, quoting extensively from the Holy Scriptures, her message was one of hope and encouragement. “We are called to go out to the battle field, to the front line to advance the Kingdom of God. Not as women, but as children of God who are women,” she asserted. Bishop Wamukoya noted that, despite the controversy that has surrounded the ordination of women as priests and bishops, Christ has given them the freedom to serve.
Consecrated in 2012 as the first Anglican female Bishop in Africa, she noted that women had much to contribute to the church, including leadership styles that “acknowledge the pain of ignored talents, dual standards and narrowly defined roles.”
She reminded her listeners that Jesus’s ministry was one of “deliverance, healing and redeeming… We are his hands and feet. He has entrusted this ministry…to us the Church, may I add us women ministers with our special and unique gifts and talents”. Therefore, she declared, these gifts should be used in the service of God. Reminding her audience of the words of Jesus “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” Bishop Wanukoya thanked God for allowing women to be “co-labourers in his vineyard at such a time as this.”
(Click Here for the full text of the Bishop’s Address) – Microsoft Word Version
(Click Here for the full text of the Bishop’s Address) – PDF Version
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