Women’s Ordination and the Hermeneutics of Gender: Analytical Perspectives from Nigerian Anglican Churches

The question of women's ordination to the priesthood and episcopate within the Anglican Church of Nigeria has generated significant theological controversy, with the Church of Nigeria maintaining a complementarian position that resists the global Anglican communion's movement toward women's ordination. This study provides a systematic analytical examination of the hermeneutical arguments employed in the Nigerian Anglican debate on women's ordination. A theological analytical methodology was adopted, examining all available official Anglican Church of Nigeria statements, synodal resolutions, and theological papers on gender and ordination from 2000 to 2023, alongside published responses from egalitarian Anglican scholars and practitioners. Interviews with fifteen Nigerian Anglican clergy (male and female) provided primary perspectives. The key hermeneutical issues, including the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2, and Galatians 3, are systematically analysed. Results reveal that the Nigerian Anglican complementarian position relies primarily on plain-reading interpretations of Pauline restrictive passages without sustained engagement with egalitarian exegetical responses. The study identifies underdevelopment in the Nigerian Anglican engagement with redemptive-movement hermeneutics and the New Testament trajectory arguments advanced by egalitarian scholars. Original contributions include a comprehensive analytical catalogue of the hermeneutical positions in the Nigerian Anglican gender debate. Recommendations include a formal structured theological dialogue process on gender and ordination within the Church of Nigeria.

Keywords: women's ordination, gender hermeneutics, Anglican Church Nigeria, complementarian theology, analytical study