'Women: be submissive'

By cmiller

OUTRAGED women at a leading church in Sevenoaks are flocking away from Sunday services – after being told they must do exactly what their husbands say.

Rev Mark Oden, curate at St Nicholas Church, Rectory Lane, gave a "medieval" sermon, Marriage and Women, to parishioners, calling on wives to submit to their husbands.

He also blamed the role of the modern woman for the breakdown of some marriages.

"We know marriage is not working," said the married father of three. "We only need to look at figures – one in four children have divorced parents.

"Wives; submit to your own husbands."

Days earlier, St Nicholas's vicar Angus MacLeay, also married and chairman of trustees at ecclesiastical organisation Reform, published a leaflet telling women they "should remain silent... if their questions could legitimately be answered by their husbands at home."

Members of the congregation have cancelled their charitable direct debits to the church, also linked with Lady Boswells School, Plymouth Drive, in protest.

"As if we are being told to let our husbands talk for us," fumed one wife, who lives in Sevenoaks and attends the church.

"And which husband? I divorced my previous husband because he threatened me and my children – am I supposed to listen to him?"

Rev Oden defended his sermon.

"I am passionate about helping people to have healthy marriages.

"I did not set out to unnecessarily offend people, but I stand by what God has said in his word the Bible."

See this week's Sevenoaks Chronicle for full story