No More Glass Ceiling? Negotiating Women’s Leadership Role in Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim
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Date
2012
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Publisher
The Journal of Pan African Studies
Abstract
This article discusses ways in which women negotiate leadership role in the religious sphere,
particularly in the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church against the patriarchal
religious precepts that deny women space at the level of priesthood hierarchy. In the light of
physical and spiritual challenges in the environment, women constitute the majority in any church
population and play very active roles within it. Nevertheless, in spite of their size and social role,
which should naturally provide expression of identity, they continue to be underrepresented and
marginalized at the highest levels of religious leadership. However, in recent times,women have
made concerted efforts to negotiate their relevance in either forming their own churches or striving
for importance through evolving programs that put them on the leadership terrain. The degree to
which they have succeeded in negotiating this role becomes the basis of this study. From the study
carried out, within the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim (ESOCS), one of the factions
of the several Cherubim and Seraphim Churches, it has been observed that women do not challenge
male constructions of leadership but strive to secure their rightful place in the church within the
limited women space. This study is guided by the fact that religion, though concerned with
supernatural and eternal is a cultural construct which makes it imperative to examine its
involvement in power relations and how power sustains it. This study concludes that in spite of the
struggles to emerge at the topmost hierarchy, deep-seated traditional and spiritual factors continue
to impinge on their overall leadership goal and until changes occur, women in ESOCS will continue
to remain in the margins