Still time to respond to the findings of Project Violet  

Responses are already coming in with commitments to action that will be reported to Baptist Union Council in October - and local churches and other stakeholders in Baptist life have until 30 September to respond to the project's findings 

 

 
Project Violet is a major study into women’s experience of ministry, which has sought to understand more fully the theological, missional, and structural obstacles women ministers face in the Baptist community in England and Wales.
 
The findings of the three-year research project were released in May and can be found on the project website.

They include specific requests for change with the vision that women will flourish in ministry, be supported and valued, and that Baptist ways of working will change to ensure more just outcomes for women ministers.
 
All parts of Baptist life have been invited to discuss and respond to the findings with commitments to action that will be formally reported to Baptist Union Council on 23 October, and then reviewed 12 months later.
 
Project co-leads Jane Day and Helen Cameron have already received some notable responses ahead of the 30 September deadline.
 
Jane said, 'We are delighted to have seen a range of imaginative and practical approaches as people engage with the requests for change highlighted by Project Violet, and then make commitments to action.
 
'All this and more is needed to ensure women genuinely flourish across Baptists Together - and so we look forward to hearing about further commitments in the days and weeks to come.
 
‘With all these commitments to action, there will be important signs of change to report back to Council in October 2025.’
 
Local churches are asked to consider seven requests for change. (see below)

Some Regional Associations are going to include responding to Project Violet in their autumn 2024/spring 2025 ministers' conferences.

Baptist colleges are preparing their responses following their conference in September, while the Ministries Team and other Specialist Teams have responses in preparation, as do Baptist networks, roundtables and forums. 
 
Ministers have also been given the opportunity to make a commitment to being an ally of women and an ally to black and brown ministers. The place to make that commitment is here. 
 
 

The seven Project Violet requests directed to local churches - with some ideas

1 Make opportunities to listen to new voices
Women are not all the same and so it is important that a variety of women’s voices are heard in church life.

Response idea:  looking back at who has been involved in worship in the last six months and seeing if that reflects the variety of women the church wishes to engage with.
 

2 Role models
Seeing women ministers helps other women hear the call of God.

Response idea: churches with women ministers releasing them to preach at churches that have not experienced a woman minister.
 

3 Use resources that reflect the diversity of Baptist life
Ensuring that the resources we use – such as posters, PowerPoints, videos and newsletters – reflect the diversity of people involved in Baptist life.

Response idea: asking younger members of the congregation to give feedback on the visual images used and how they represent women.
 

4 Local churches make their position on women’s ministry known prior to settlement
Women ministers can find it difficult to know which churches would welcome their ministry when they are applying to be a minister.

Response idea: put a statement on the church's website saying which roles women are welcome to take up in the church.
Response idea: Including in the church's profile a welcome for women ministers, if that is the church's position.
 

5 A theology of disability that enables local churches to reflect upon their practice
Reflecting on what we believe about disability can help us think about how we wish to include people with a disability in our church. Some people have been surprised to see race and disability justice requests included in the Project Violet findings yet the feedback from our researchers is that they are essential to the inclusion of women.

Response idea: Commit to engaging with the resources on the Baptists Together website 
 

For the two final requests there are plans to make training available.  At this stage expressing a willingness to engage with training would be a good response.
 

6 Developing slow wisdom in the local church meeting
Churches are invited to reflect upon the way in which they conduct their church meetings so that they focus on discerning the mind of Christ.
 

7 Training in advocacy
Challenging unhelpful language and behaviour as it happens stops patterns of sexism developing. Training will be offered to ministers and others wanting to increase their confidence in doing this.
 
 
With these requests for change in mind, Project Violet subsequently expresses three hopes for Baptist churches:
 
1 Being a positive place for women to minister
We want every local church to be a place where women can flourish in their ministry, being all that God intends them to be. Even churches without a minister or who would not appoint an ordained woman minister will have contact with women ministers as visitors leading worship or in their Regional Association.
 

2 Being a place where women are encouraged to listen to God’s call
We want every local church to be a place where women can experience God’s call on their lives and be nurtured and encouraged to discover what that means.
 

3 Being a church ready to engage in mission to a world where women and girls experience sexism
We want every local church to be confident in mission to their context knowing that the women and girls they encounter may well be experiencing sexist language, behaviour, and ways of working that hold them back from being all that God intends them to be.

 

For more, access the Project Violet Report for Local Churches, which brings the requests for change directed at local churches into a single document.

This section also explains how to respond, including links to a simple template stakeholders can use to document the commitments to action