Gender roles

One thing that seemed to trouble team members early on during the visit was the apparently reduced role of women in churches even in worship leadership. In some churches teams had visited before women had at least sang solos, and during the 2012 visit team members met women from one faraway church who were apparently church elders and deacons (including Rosa Marina, who subsequently visited CHPC).  It wasn´t until the last visit Monday - at the very end of worship - that a woman sang a solo.  In the abstract at this Peniel church, a woman and man had sung a duet (but the man generally hogged the microphone) and a women´s chorus sang to the group (but again a male soloist hogged the microphone and the women looked very sad). Cara observed that the kids were very approachable but the boys more than the girls and by the time they reached adulthood (socially defined at a very young age) they seemed very reserved and even fearful.  Others in the group observed that - all the more so what some group members had observed the night before - the women get up very, very early to start making tortillas all day long and serve meals to their husbands and kids and may look sad and be - to our minds - shy because they are just so darn tired.  Perry also observed that at Panzos the CHPC team had been served chicken and rice and tortillas first, then presbytery leaders (all men), and then the men of the church ate.  The women and children were lucky to get any tortillas (so women and children were last).

On the other hand, team members were happy that in several churches two women - Jane preaching or reading scripture and Elisabeth translating were the team´s leading worship leadership representatives - and also Cara and Elisabeth (and Jane) were CHPC´s leading representatives during much of the children´s and youth activities that followed Tuesday morning.  With role models like that . . . .

- Perry