An assembly of Presbyterian Kohhran Hmeichhia (women wing) which concluded at Kawnpui in Mizoram, unanimously passed a resolution demanding pastoral posts for women.
''It is high time that the Presbyterian Church of India ordain qualified women church workers as pastors and ministers,'' the assemblys resolution said. The resolution is to be put forward to the executive committee of Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod.
''Mizoram Presbyterian Church has a good number of women theologians who could have been much more productive had they been ordained,'' a woman church worker commented on the agenda.
Though Christianity has been a dominant religion in Mizoram since 1894, no woman has ever adorned the coveted post of pastor in any church in the hill state. This despite the fact that the women ministries of each denomination play a very important role in the churches. Mizoram Presbyterian Church, which has more than half the states population as members, employ its women theological graduates and postgraduates in different capacities such as teaching in theological college, coordinator of womens desk and others engaged in mission work.
Recently, the Mizoram Baptist Church, the second largest denomination in this Northeastern state, has vetoed the ordination of women, proposed by the churchs pastoral department, closing the doors again for ordination of a woman pastor in Mizoram.
Around 40 years ago, Saptawni was the first Mizo woman to be elected as a ''Kohhran Upa'' or church elder, by the congregation of the Aizawl's Mission Veng branch of the Presbyterian Church.
However, the Presbyterian Church reportedly declared her election as null and void as the church could not accept a woman as a church elder, though she was the wife of a pioneer church leader and an influential pastor.
Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or Mizo women's association has declared 2010-11 as the year of women empowerment.