Can women pray during church services?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1998.

With regard to your question, 'Does 1 Corinthians 11:5 teach that sisters can pray during church services?', I hope—and I sincerely believe with all my heart—that sisters do, all of them, pray during church services. I think you must mean, 'Does the Scripture teach that sisters can lead the congregation in prayer audibly during a church service? And can they, indeed, prophesy as well during public meetings of the church?'

The answer to that question will depend on your understanding of 1 Corinthians 14:34, which, taken at its face value, says that it is a shame (NB not a sin) for a woman to speak in church. One cannot lead the church in public prayer without speaking, of course.

Now, people have suggested many different ways of reconciling the apparent contradiction between 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 1 Corinthians 14:34. I am sure you are well aware of all these many different suggestions. I myself hold that the best way to reconcile the two statements is to suppose that the early Christians would have followed the same practice as the godly Jews. Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36-38) exercised her prophetic ministry in the temple courts in the presence of both men and women; but Anna would not have been asked to take formal part in the services of the temple, nor would she have been invited to prophesy in the formal meetings of the synagogue—as far as I am aware.

I suspect that Philip's daughters did their prophesying at home or on other occasions, but not in the formal meetings of the church (Acts 21:9); but I am aware that godly people, whose motive is solely to please the Lord, hold different views upon this matter.

I will simply add what I suspect you know already, that the word for 'silence' in 1 Corinthians 14:34 is different from the word for 'silence' in 1 Timothy 2:12. The latter, when it is used in the imperative of the verb, can mean 'be quiet!'; and that, in turn, can mean what we would mean if we told a child 'be quiet!' when the child was speaking out of place. But it means more than simply not speaking. It can refer also to disposition as well.

Yours sincerely in Christ