SIALKOT, Pakistan — The Church of Pakistan has set two women on the path toward priesthood, ordaining them as deacons.
“The church has taken a very bold step, particularly in our Islamic context, in ordaining women,” one of the women, Kushnud Azariahs, told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service. “The gender barrier has been broken.”
Her husband, Bishop Samuel Azariahs, moderator of the 800,000-member Church of Pakistan, said the church had “gone ahead with what we believe is right. We have made our commitment to it.”
The Church of Pakistan, a member of the World Council of Churches, is composed of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and other Protestants.
Retired army major Timotheus Nasir, moderator-secretary of the United Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, however, charged the ordinations will lead to “apostasy and heresy.”
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