One thing we lack
The Presbyterian Church of India is a strong testimony to people's equal value in a society where disparity in incomes is increasing, says the Principal of Serampore College Rev Dr Lalchungnunga. But it has one big failing.
In Northeast Indian society, the church is the strongest equalising factor. We don't deliberately fight or campaign against social division but we live like before, retaining the sense of community and solidarity of the past.
My mother and my sister are also women and I would not allow them to be oppressed
However there's one negative thing: we still discriminate against women.
We allow women to do anything in the church except be ordained.
We haven't educated ourselves that we are all equal - men and women.
Theologically trained people can understand but lay people do not accept that women should be ordained. They think that women should be subordinate.
The church in this respect becomes the symbol of a tradition of oppressing women.
We can change it by education and by women proving they are as capable as men.
Rev Dr Lalchungnunga
The arguments against women's ordination are that Jesus never told women to be his apostles.
People never want to see that both men and women were really important in the life of Jesus, helping him and taking care of him, and that in the early church there were men and women leaders, even though the Bible doesn't give a prominent place to them.
Paul's letters can be interpreted so that it seems his view on women is that they shouldn't teach or wear certain garments, but rather listen quietly. But that ignores the part of the Bible that says there's no male or female in Christ.
I think these arguments are influenced by culture. In our society women are given subordinate roles.
People say they should go along quietly and not speak when they are with their husbands. Our men tend to think of women only as wives not as mothers or sisters. Whenever male-female issues are addressed we men tend to think of them as wives but my mother and my sister are also women and I would not allow them to be oppressed.