Woman takes charge of Belgium’s Protestant community for the first time

Unlike in Roman Catholicism or Islam, for example, a woman can hold the highest position in the Protestant churches. And that is now the case for the first time in Belgium. Incidentally, the head of Belgium’ s Protestants is not an archbishop (which is a title used by Catholics or Anglicans), but simply a president or chairperson.

Isabelle Detavernier was elected after representatives of Belgium’s Protestants chose her over a male opponent. She is 59 years old, mother of four children, grandmother of one grandchild, and studied theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Brussels. She then trained in Scotland and northern France, after which she worked almost full-time as a minister. She did so in Rixensart (Wallonia), but mainly in Brussels, in the Protestant church at the Botanical Gardens.

Nothing special

Aa a child and grandchild of ministers, in fact, it was almost predictable. Detavernier is now officially chairperson after a handover service at the Graanmarktkerk in Brussels, where she was officially appointed as the successor to her predecessor Steven Fuite.

Detavernier does not believe being the first woman at the head of her Church is anything particularly special: "It is simply a characteristic of our religion that women can hold all offices. It is also a reflection of society, where women should be equal to men. I know that in countries such as Switzerland and France, women have already become chairpersons, and now for the first time here in Belgium. It is a challenge, of course, for the four years of my term of office."

Work to be done

Detavernier realises that there is work to be done, because also among Protestants there is a wave of secularisation. "I want to work hard on the shortage of vocations and ministers. Our workforce is shrinking, so we need to focus on providing good support for the lay people who are involved in our Church. Because we need to be able to count on them, we need to retain them and motivate them. And we also need to develop a new financial model, a new strategy, because government funding is decreasing and we are feeling the effects of that," says Detavernier.

‘Purely religiously, I want to be who I was and am as a minister: socially minded, socially conscious and pastoral. Among the faithful, with my feet firmly planted in the world.’

Detavernier has been de facto head since 1 January, and now it is also official in her Church. She is the head of the United Protestant Church in Belgium, to which about 1.5 per cent of Belgians belong. However, there are twice as many other Protestants in Belgium, Reformed Protestants or believers in charismatic and evangelical movements.