Can a woman preach to men and woman.?

Answer 1

The short answer is: it depends on the denomination. Some religions forbid it, but others permit it. Part of the split involves the more conservative and traditional interpretations, versus the more modern and moderate versions. A good example is Judaism: in Orthodox Judaism, women are not allowed to be rabbis nor are they allowed to preach to a mixed congregation. There are women who are allowed to lead women's prayer groups, but never a group of men and women. However, amongst the other denominations of Judaism (Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist), women are allowed to be rabbis and they do preach to a mixed congregation.

There are similar differences of opinion and interpretation in Christianity. For conservative and traditional Christians, the teachings of Saint Paul in the New Testament are taken literally: he commanded women keep silent in the affairs of the church, and there is a verse that says women should not preach. That is why even today, some traditional Protestant congregations still forbid women from being ministers or from doing any public preaching. Similarly, in the Catholic church, women cannot become priests (they can be nuns, but nuns are subordinate to priests in the church hierarchy), nor can women be bishops or cardinals or popes. Some Catholic churches allow altar girls, who help with the mass, but others do not. Some Catholic churches allow women to give a reading during mass, but women cannot give the sermon.

However, in the more liberal denominations of Christianity, such as Methodist, Congregationalist, and Unitarian-Universalist, women can be ministers and can lead a mixed congregation. There are also women ministers in the Episcopalian church and there have even been women who attained the position of bishop. So, the answer to your question would depend not only on which denomination or sect you are in, but on whether that group takes the interpretation of scripture literally, and whether they insist on the patriarchal tradition of an all-male hierarchy.