Ashfield: The value of open dialogue

When Ashfield Presbyterian initiated a church-wide dialogue on the role and place of women in ministry, the resulting conversations helped both formalise decisions and deepen unity across the congregation.

The session had considered the involvement of women in upfront roles in the church service. Despite many shared convictions on the authority of the Bible and a complementarian framework for ministry, there were different positions held on a doctrine of worship and what roles were appropriate for women. They worked through a few versions of a position paper.

Rev. David Balzer and Deaconess Roslyn Deal told the Clarity Not Consensus podcast led to a position paper, with 12 principles.

“Interesting that 12 is a nice biblical number, that the session had agreed on. We emailed it to people, made it available, before we had an open meeting to explain and answer questions and hear people’s thoughts,” David says. “I remember at least one other person said to me, look, I don’t think you’ve gone
far enough, but it’s not something I’m going to leave over. So that was nice to hear!”

“Sometimes even having the discussion helps people to know this is where we stand.”

“The thing about a family is that you do disagree on stuff, and you’ve got to learn to get on regardless,” Ros says.

A few years prior to this, the session had appointed a women’s leadership team of 5-6 women, so as to hear a range of opinion, rather than seek to hear only one voice.

Ros then came on as a staff member. Being a trailblazer brought tensions, navigating her roles as deaconess, staff worker and female church member.
The unique strength of Ashfield’s approach was its foundation: not impulsive change, but slow, Scripturebased reflection, paired with tangible pastoral care.
“I reckon that in any decision a church makes, too much consultation is never enough. You want people to come on the journey with you,” Ros says.

“I’d love to see more churches thinking about a part-time assistant who happens to be female. I carefully said it that way. Not a women’s worker, but a pastoral assistant who happens to be a woman to complement what you can do,” Dave says.

The experience at Ashfield shows that when conversations are rooted in Scripture and love, even vulnerable experiences can cultivate grace, trust, and a clearer sense of purpose across the congregation.

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