Its great to have the board back up. Many thanks to Susan and Eric!

I was wondering the other day about how many other churches have gender segregated meetings for the adults? Mormons priesthood and RS for example. And of course, the temple

I know that Muslims and some more conservative Jews separate the sexes, but what about other Christian churches?

Thanks

Wouldn't work in my denomination. A bunch of the ministers (and the lead minister) are women, as well as many of the deacons and elders.

Traditionalist Native American churches often do. Also special up front (though segregated) seats for the elders, male and female.

Ordained transgendered pastor in the denomination to boot.

More than you think. In my profession, I do financial audits for a number of local churches. They all have sunday study groups where the adults are split between male and female.

segregated meetings, as well as segregated seeting within the church.

Males over the age of 12 in one group and women and children (males under 12 and all girls) on the other side.

I have heard that in the old countries (Russia, Greece, etc.) men and women tend to sit apart. It isn't done among Eastern Orthodox Christians in western Europe and in the Americas, though.

Have attended an Orthodox church service in Ukraine. Sexes were mixed. There is no "seating" per se because one stands in an Orthodox church in Russia and Ukraine. There are a few small stools for the elderly, but fit people are expected to stand for the entire service.

My grandparents attended an orthodox congregation, Greek Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox - can't remember - that used to separate men from women even in the general mass. The women on one side, men on the other. They stopped this type of segregation at some point, but women were still considered lesser and could not participate in any capacity of the mass or worship (other than prayer in the general congregation) and could not ever enter the sanctuary, which is the area where the alter is. To try to explain in Mormon terms, the stage where Mormons have the podium - a woman would not be permitted there.

So it still happens here today, but I think it's pretty rare for the most part.

The Catholic Church in the USA has allowed girls to function as altar servers in an on-again, off-again fashion (depending on which Pope was in power) since the late 1970s.

Prior to Vatican II reforms, the only time you'd see women on the altar was when it needed to be cleaned (either the nuns did it, or else lay members of the Rosary Altar Society did it). You would not see women reading scriptural passages or leading prayers/petitions. Women had to keep their heads covered (hat, veil, mantilla, Kleenex, etc.) while men did not. Because church choirs contained women, that was the extent of their leadership role in the liturgy (i.e. you might see a woman soloist on the altar singing during Communion).

I was curious if there is a correlation between the liberalness of the churches who don't have segregated seating or auxiliary groups.

Do "conservative" (read that churches who have never treated women well) tend to segregate?

Some stakes have started new branches and wards in inner city areas because whites stopped attending suburban ones when a lot of poor minority converts started coming.

The original thread meant gender segregation rather than racial segregation, but I'm glad you mentioned it. I used to know of an "English-language branch" here that was called the "West-African branch" until about 2002.

The change in name was a diplomatic compromise: the Europeans were shocked that all the blacks were herded away from us to another time schedule, while the other immigrants, who are the bulk of the converts, didn't want to mingle with people that were a few shades darker. So now you had Indians and Ecuadoreans going to a meeting in a language they didn't comprehend, and people who knew the local language well were asked to "help" in the English branch.

Outrageous.

my DH was raised Methodist. me: raised LDS only been in a baptist faith a few times & just for the main worship meeting.


we had recently left the Church, trying other faiths. we went one sunday to the local methodist group a couple blocks from us. after sunday school i said to DH, "ok, so if you could help me find where the other women are, i will meet you later." he & about 12 other people stopped in their tracks & looked at me like i had lobsters crawling out of my ears..lol

In many catholic churches in some parts of Europe, traditionally men sit on one side of the aisle and men on the other. It is still done at the funerals of elderly people, but quickly going out of fashion for ordinary mass. Ten years ago at the funeral of a 35-year-old, his siblings asked everybody to just sit with their own spouse/kids/parents/siblings. Nowadays it's the other way around and upon entering the church they will tell you wether to segregate or not.

I don't know if this was ever church-wide doctrine, but I've seen it in places a thousand miles apart.