The report cites that in some cases the church has subjected aspiring female ministers to more scrutiny than male candidates, and ordination has been delayed in other cases because some church leaders opposed to women in ministry have refused to attend examination meetings.

The Reformed Church in America during its annual General Synod that started Friday will consider removing from its books language that permits conscientious objection to the ordination of women.

The longstanding “conscience clauses” have created “an institutionalized lack of support (for ordination of women) at best and a deterrent from ministry at worst,” according to a Synod commission recommending that the language be dropped.

“Male officeholders who oppose the ordination of women use the clauses as an excuse to disregard and publicly question the authority of ordained women,” the report states.

“The RCA continues to say that it affirms the gifts and callings of women as well as men, but remains inconsistent in how women are treated in their efforts to follow God’s calling, providing in its very Constitution an excuse for women to be ignored, held back, interrogated, and denigrated.”

Women have been ordained in the RCA since 1979, but a survey by the church’s Commission on Women found that 24 percent of ordained women “experienced some obstacle or setback to their (ordination) candidacy as a result of inappropriate uses of the conscience clauses.”

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