Report on International Women’s Day talk by Rev. Tess Vertucio from the United Church of Christ Philippines

This year's International Women's day event at PANA gathered 20 women and men to listen and discuss the ongoing challenges facing women in church leadership around the globe. Rev. Tess Vertucio, a conference minister in the United Church of Christ Philippines (UCCP), was our special guest to share about the Philippines context. This was followed by a rich sharing of experiences among the culturally, religiously and nationally diverse group that was gathered. Participants shared about the similar struggles of women leaders in the church in Indonesia, Africa, and here in the United States in Euro-American, Polynesian, African-American and Buddhist contexts.

Rev. Vertucio presented research she conducted with the ordained women ministers in the UCCP Southern Luzon Jurisdiction Area. Her study found that although women are conferred the status of ordination in the UCCP, (the first woman was ordained pastor in 1936, and bishop in 1998), women are in the vast minority and do not have a fair representation or equal status in the church leadership, especially at regional and national church levels. Many women church workers in the Philippines tend to be steered towards being Deaconesses rather than ordained as clergy who exert more authority in the decision-making and executive functions of the church.

The historical ordination of a few women, has failed to address the issue of women's subordination and the inclusion of a women's agenda (the valuing of women's lives and natural gifts) in church ministry. Vertucio mentioned a myriad of structural, cultural and social obstacles facing women pastors and warned that the church must be careful not to be content with the mere ordination of women. Such contentment, she warned, leaves the plight of women still unattended. True change will only be addressed when ministry is redefined as partnership among women and men. The UCCP as a church is committed to the transformation of society and involved in the struggles for democracy and justice in the Philippines. Vertucio commented that these movements have often asked women to put the "women's issue" on the back burner. But true liberation, she said, cannot happen unless it also includes justice, liberation and equality for women.

Rev. Vertucio hopes to create a program of empowerment that will address the isolation and marginalization of Filipino women pastors.