The role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches of the Germiston District of Gauteng: a ritual-liturgical exploration by MOTSEPE LAWRENCE MOGOANE submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF THEOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA SUPERVISOR: Prof C WEPENER 2019 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My heartfelt gratitude goes to the following for the part they played in making this study a success: • Prof Cas Wepener for his friendliness, patience, support, encouragement and constructive criticism. • The Eastern Reef Regional Council Committee for granting me the permission to conduct this research in the region. • All the Assemblies of God churches, their leaders, as well as all the congregants who participated in this study. ii DEDICATION This project is dedicated to the following: • My wife Dabea, for her understanding, prayers and support in the completion of this project. May God’s blessings abound in your life. • Our four children Oneetswe, Gaadiege, Rorisang and Osenotswe, and our granddaughter Omphile. May you experience God’s grace in your lives. iii DECLARATION I declare that this dissertation, The role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches of the Germiston District of Gauteng: a ritual-liturgical exploration, is my own work. All the sources that I have used or quoted have been acknowledged by means of complete references. ------------------------------------ ----------------- SIGNATURE DATE (M.L. MOGOANE) iv ABSTRACT The role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches of the Germiston District of Gauteng: a ritual-liturgical exploration, is a qualitative study conducted in three township churches. The study seeks to answer the question “What are the factors promoting or hindering the role and impact of women in worship, in the Pentecostal churches (particularly in the AOG (BTG)) in the Germiston District of Gauteng?” This study is premised on the assertion by Gabaitse (2015:2), that recent studies indicate that while the Pentecostal movement is potentially a liberating space, it still has ambivalent attitudes towards women; and that the church remains a space which subjugates women “even as it offers them a unique permission to speak.” The theoretical framework of the study is Richard Osmer’s four core tasks of Practical Theological Interpretation, viz. The Descriptive task, the Interpretive task, the Normative task and the Pragmatic task. The ritual-liturgical exploratory nature of the study demanded that the researcher should also deal with concepts such as worship, liturgy, ritual and women’s roles in the Old and New Testament worship. There was also a discussion of the concept of liturgy, which included liturgy as ritual, liturgy and tradition, and liturgical inculturation. The data collection methods were qualitative focus group interviews with women, as well as semi-structured interviews with congregational leaders. Data from the focus group interviews was presented in narrative form and ‘emic’ view of the participants. Tesch’s descriptive method of open coding was adopted in presentation of the data, as well as the thematic structure of the focus group interview schedule. The study revealed that the participants knew the roles played by men and women in worship. However, their roles were not significant in preaching in corporate services; as well as in congregational leadership positions, including being ordained pastors. The study showed further that women’s commitment, unity, passion for children, cooperation and action-orientatedness were major factors in their success in most church activities. In contrast, some of the factors which accounted for their roles and impact being insignificant were, the culture of members of the church, church tradition and selective use of some texts of the Bible to bring women into submission. v Participants indicated that the pragmatic way-forward is to go back to proper study and interpretation of the Bible. While some participants proposed a top-down approach to change systemic issues of the church, others said in improving the situation the different leadership structures should consult with other church members in a bottom-up approach. This study showed that while women are allowed to participate in some areas of worship in the AOG (BTG), the fundamental issues of patriarchy and gender equality with regard to preaching, ordination of pastors, as well as appointment into leadership positions of the whole church still need to be addressed. KEY WORDS: Church, impact, gender, gender inequality, liturgy, patriarchy, pentecostalism, ritual, role, women and worship vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of abbreviations and acronyms xv List of tables xvi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background information 1 1.1.1 A brief history of the Assemblies of God (Back to God) 2 1.2 Focus of the study 3 1.2.1 Problem statement 3 1.2.2 Research questions 4 1.2.2.1 Main Research question 4 1.2.2.2 Sub-questions of the Research Study 4 1.2.3 Rationale for the study 5 1.2.4 Purpose of the study 6 1.2.4.1 Aim 6 1.2.4.2 Objectives 6 1.3 Definition of concepts 7 1.3.1 Church 7 1.3.2 Impact 7 1.3.3 Gender 7 1.3.4 Gender inequality 8 1.3.5 Liturgy 8 1.3.6 Patriarchy 9 1.3.7 Pentecostalism 9 1.3.8 Ritual 10 1.3.9 Role 10 1.3.10 Women 11 1.3.11 Worship 11 1.4 Literature review 12 1.4.1 Theoretical framework 12 1.5 Research methodology 13 1.5.1 Research design 13 1.5.2 Research setting 13 vii 1.5.3 Data Collection Methods 14 1.5.4 Sampling Techniques 14 1.5.5 Data Analysis 14 1.5.6 Units of analysis 15 1.5.7 Criteria for measurement of quality 15 1.5.8 Ethical considerations 15 1.5.9 Delineation of the study 15 1.6 Outline of the study 15 CHAPTERT 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 17 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Richard Osmer’s four core tasks of practical theological interpretation 18 2.2.1 The descriptive empirical task (What is going on?) 18 2.2.2 The interpretive task (Why is this going on?) 22 2.2.3 The Normative Task (What ought to be going on?) 23 2.2.4 The Pragmatic Task (How might we respond?) 25 2.3 Gender inequality theories 26 2.3.1 Some classifications of Gender inequality theories 26 2.3.2 Gender Stratification 29 2.3.3 Feminism and the ethics of gender 29 2.3.4 Gender as social structure 32 2.3.5 Gender, Religion and Patriarchy 35 2.3.6 The background of the changing roles of women in the church 36 2.3.7 The Scripture and Gender 37 2.3.8 Pentecostal ideology, Pentecostal hermeneutic and gender inequality 38 2.3.8.1 Pentecostal ideology 39 2.3.8.2 Pentecostal hermeneutics and gender inequality 40 2.3.9 Women’s liberation from the Pentecostal hermeneutic 43 2.4 Feminism and biblical scholarship 44 2.4.1 Development of feminist biblical scholarship in the USA 44 2.4.2 Development of feminist biblical scholarship in the Africa 45 viii 2.4.3 The centrality of the Bible in feminist hermeneutics 45 2.5 Conclusion 46 CHAPTER 3: WORSHIP, LITURGY, AND THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF WOMEN 48 3.1 Introduction 48 3.2 Liturgy 48 3.2.1 The meaning of liturgy 48 3.2.2 Liturgy as ritual 50 3.2.3 Acentricity and forms of liturgical ritual 51 3.2.4 Liturgy and tradition 51 3.2.4.1 Tradition 51 3.2.4.2 Invention of tradition 52 3.2.4.3 Relationship between liturgy and tradition 53 3.2.5 Liturgical inculturation 53 3.2.6 Tradition and the process of liturgical inculturation 57 3.3 Worship 58 3.3.1 What is worship? 58 3.3.2 Worship as liturgical ritual 58 3.3.2 Evolution of worship 58 3.3.3 New Testament worship 60 3.3.4 Worship styles 60 3.3.5 Bricolage liturgy 63 3.4 The role of women in major religions of the world 64 3.4.1 Buddhism 64 3.4.2 Hinduism 64 3.4.3 Islam 65 3.4.4 Judaism 65 3.4.5 Christianity 67 3.5 Women’s roles in the Old and New Testament worship 70 3.5.1 Women’s roles in Old Testament worship 70 3.5.2 Women’s roles in the New Testament worship 71 3.6 The equality of men and women in worship 72 3.6.1 Women are equal to men in prayer 73 ix 3.6.2 Equality of women and men in prophesying and receiving God’s revelations 73 3.6.3 Women in teaching 74 3.7 Women and leadership roles 74 3.7.1 What is leadership 74 3.7.2 Women in leadership roles in the church 75 3.7.3 Women in the AOG (BTG) leadership roles 77 3.7.4 Overlap between leadership and liturgical leadership 78 3.7.5 Liturgical presidency/leadership in the early church 79 3.7.6 Women as liturgical practitioners 79 3.7.7 Arenas of influence of women in church leadership 80 3.8 Conclusion 80 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 82 4.1 Introduction 82 4.2. Research setting 82 4.3 Research design 82 4.4 Preparation for data collection 83 4.4.1 Permission for access to the churches 83 4.5 Sampling techniques 83 4.5.1 Purposive Sampling 84 4.6 Data collection methods 84 4.6.1 Qualitative focus group interviews 84 4.6.1.1 Evolution of focus groups 85 4.6.1.2 Uses of focus groups 85 4.6.1.3 Composition of focus groups 86 4.6.1.4 Conducting focus group interviews 86 4.6.1.5 Focus group interview guide 87 4.6.1.6 Advantages and disadvantages of focus groups 87 4.6.2 Qualitative semi-structured interviews 88 4.7 Data analysis and interpretation of the findings 89 4.7.1 Analysis strategies for qualitative data 89 4.7.2 Interpretation of findings 90 x 4.8 Criteria for measurement of quality 90 4.8.1 Measures of trustworthiness 90 4.8.2 Authenticity 92 4.9 Ethical considerations 92 4.10 Limitations of the study 94 4.11 Conclusion 94 CHAPTER 5: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF EMPIRICAL DATA; AND INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 96 5.1 Introduction 96 5.2 Presentation and analysis of empirical data 96