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realize this, and also then men need to be aware of what God wants of us, and where we can arrive to. [...] The spiritual authority is very important for us. Under these limits, here we say the woman can preach and minister. My husband has ordained my mother and me as pastors (A9ESH).\u000AIn ESH the lady pastor is in charge of the preaching which she shares with other members of the pastoral team. Some women preach from the platform like the men in these churches. Two other lady leaders who have assumed distinct ministries in the church preach also in this church. They also allow visiting women speakers to use the pulpit. On two different occasions the researcher heard women preaching from the pulpit. But he did not observe any woman in any of the other churches visited preaching.\u000AThe researcher observed that in churches like \u2018Fuente de Agua Viva\u2019 in Carolina in Puerto Rico, the Rhema church in South Africa or some of the NPCs in Guatemala, women also have a pastoral ministry alongside the men. From the Pentecostal context, Janet Everts notes that it is rare to see Pentecostal women in the pulpit in the Assemblies of God. She states, \u2018Despite the large numbers of women ordained in the history of Pentecostalism, the current picture in not necessarily encouraging for Pentecostal women (1999: 314). A similar situation happens among churches belonging to the mainline denominations in Guatemala. Most of the pastors are men.\u000AIVC Churches do not usually provide spaces for women to become pastors and they may not preach. According to some informants of this church, \u2018women are to support their spouses, they can do many things but they are not allowed to preach from the platform\u2019 (L7ICV). There they do not receive title of pastor either. The ICV have organizations for the woman like one called \u2018the New Woman\u2019 which provides training, education in the bible and development of manual abilities. The ministry \u2018S\u00EDgueme\u2019 [follow Christ] of FCG promote activities of evangelism for women and as well as gaol visitation. A survey led for Pew Forum found in Pentecostal churches that,\u000APentecostals in six of the countries surveyed are more willing than the public overall to allow women to serve as pastors or church leaders. This pattern, however, does not generally extend to other gender issues; where there is no consistent pattern differentiating Pentecostals from others (The Pew Forum 2006b).\u000A305\u000A


































































































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