Moore College’s Priscilla and Aquila Centre, established to encourage the ministry partnership of men and women, has held its second annual conference.

250 people registered for the event, a response which encouraged Centre Director Jane Tooher.

“There was a great mix of men and women in attendance”, she said.” The furthest someone travelled to come was from New Zealand. This has become an important forum to devise a practical approach to women’s and men’s ministry side by side.”

The centre began in 2011 with the first conference on Genesis 1-3, and this year’s gathering, entitled ‘Side by Side’ featured a keynote talk by Dr John Woodhouse on 1 Timothy 2 ‘What does it teach’.

In a detailed treatment of the text, Dr Woodhouse began by examining the reasons for the discomfort of many with the passage.

“To state the obvious: there are probably few passages of the Bible that strike our ears today with more dissonance than the last few verses of 1 Timothy 2. Of course there are many passages in the Bible that strike a discordant note in with their hearers. That has always been the case. But many of us feel that the last few verses of 1 Timothy 2 have another dimension of difficulty for us – another kind of difficulty.” he said.

The 'myth of progress'

Dr Woodhouse said part of the difficulty had to do with an arrogance which “so exaggerates the goodness of the present, overlooking its problems, and then overstates the failures of the past and ignores past wisdom. It is the equal and opposite error of the nostalgia that sees some past era as a golden age when all was good, and the present as all decline.”

He also blamed a modern view which elevated ‘individual freedom’ as a surpeme good.

He suggested “the cultural clash most of us feel as we read this portion of God’s Word may be more important that we often suppose. Could it be that the Bible has a better vision of what it means to be human than individual freedom destroying community (as in the West) or community destroying individual freedom (as, say, in some middle eastern nations)? And is it possible that 1 Timothy 2:11-15 is part of that vision, rather than a relic of a supposed terrible age that denigrated women.”

The full keynote address is available as text, audio and video.

Practical ministry discussions

“I think, and many have said this to me, that John Woodhouse did an excellent job of communicating that we are open to discussion and dialogue on what is appropriate in terms of upfront teaching for women. John’s talk was important as we experimented with what is appropriate at the conference and as we experiment with that at Moore College”, Jane Tooher said.

A series of electives explored topics such as 'Overseers & deacons in the Pastorals' and “Women upfront in the Sunday service'.

The centre director also spoke on ‘Modesty’.The 2013 Annual Conference is being planned for next February, but the Priscilla and Aquila Centre will be involved in other events throughout 2012 including two in March.

A series of seminars for women in word ministry starts on 31st March and Grace Evangelical Church in Newcastle has asked the Centre to provide speakers for a one day seminar on Tuesday 13th March.