The 5 Christian Denominations With the Most Conservative Stance on Women in the Priesthood

For centuries, numerous Christian denominations forbade women from presiding as ministers in the church. Through the centuries, numerous denominations have changed that antiquated policy. However, there are still a few churches that maintain the centuries old edict forbidding women from ministry. Several of these denominations are becoming split on the issue of women in the priesthood. Here is a brief look at 12 Christian religions that still have conservative views on women and the priesthood.

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1. The Church of Latter Day Saints

The Church of Latter Day Saints allows women to hold unpaid positions in the church and deliver sermons and offer prayer in Sunday services, but maintains its ban on women serving as priests. Brigham Young University President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) explained that it was the Lord, not man, "who designated that men in his church should hold the priesthood" and that it was also the Lord who endowed women with "capabilities to round out this great and marvelous organization, which is the Church and kingdom of God."

2. Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church maintains a centuries' old ban on women under the reasoning that the church has no authority to confer priestly ordination of women. In recent years, some more liberal bishops have called for a break in ancient traditions regarding the ordination of women into the priesthood. The Vatican has reaffirmed that there is no authority to change this teaching.

3. Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church maintains a manual that set the worldwide qualifications created decades earlier prohibiting women in the role of church leadership. Some have challenged this old decree. In 2012, Delegates to the Adventist Church's Danish Union voted to halt all ministerial ordination until 2015, when the General Conference Session could take action on the findings of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee. The committee is currently researching the biblical theology and Adventist philosophy behind the Christian tradition of ordination, as reported on adventistsaffirm.org. Some more liberal church members are backing the ordination of women while the more traditional hard liners hold firm to their beliefs against women in the priesthood.

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4. Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church in America follows a line of reasoning that reflects those of the Roman Catholics. While Orthodoxy has not accepted the ordination of women, according to the website oca.org, it does laud a woman, Theotokos, as the one who is "more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim" and holds her up as a model for all of God's people, male and female alike.

5. Jehovah's Witnesses

In the Jehovah's Witnesses faith, women are allowed to be ordained to go into the field going door to door to recruit new members. Deacons and elders must be male. Women can only conduct services when there is special need. In the chauvinistic opinion attributed to Samuel Herd, member of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses, "Women have smaller brains, thus not built for leadership roles like men are.

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