ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the attempted rehabilitation of Eve in Christian women's activity, either in enthusiastic response to moves made within the denominations, or in shaping their own distinctive initiatives towards the institutional churches. Diana Collins' polemic, that Eve be rehabilitated through the Anglican ordination of women, epitomises the early spirit of optimism that such a rehabilitation of women in the churches was imminent. This optimism was fuelled by denominational initiatives concerning the position of women in the churches arising within the first two currents – post Vatican II Catholic renewal and the World Council of Churches Community of Women and Men in the Church programme. Catholic Women's Network (CWN) and Women in Theology (WIT) modelled a rehabilitation of Eve within the institutional churches, thus – despite the climate of realism – perpetuating the rehabilitative ethos of the British Christian women's movement, by pursuing reformist aims within their respective churches.
