"It's not a power struggle," Hoeft said. "Three powerful parts can work together. It's from that image that I see men and women and their roles (in the church)."

For example, Hoeft, 36, said social skills and musical abilities are some of her strengths.

Consequently, she goes to Friday night Salvation Army jam sessions, while her husband, Al, minds their children.

"One of the most frequently asked questions I get is 'Where's Al?' But if it were Al going to the jam sessions, everybody would assume I was at home."

Hoeft said Al's strengths are more organizational -- and paternal -- in nature.

About seven women attended the luncheon, timed to coincide with International Women's Week, including women's centre executive director Arlene Hache.

"I come from a dysfunctional family," Hache said. "It would have been very difficult without the spiritual help I got."

Still, Hache stresses religious choice is personal.

"For me, personally, it is important because I believe that you need the healing power and guidance of God, the holy spirit, to function effectively in helping the community."

Hache said she does not believe people in a community do that on their own.

Hoeft interprets the Bible to imply that "woman is a helper to man as God is a helper to all of mankind," that "It is not a subservient position but a position of great power."

And she sees Jesus as a man who held great power and chose to show it by submitting to others.

The Salvation Army allows women to be ministers and has since 1865. The church's founders, Catherine and William Booth, both focused on different areas.

Catherine was the theologian while William was a social activist.

Early church efforts helped raise the age of consent in Britain to 14 years old, and helped stop girls from being sold into prostitution.

Lesbians, however, can not be ordained as Salvation Army ministers, an exclusion Hoeft justified as stemming from their lifestyle.

"There is also a policy of total abstinence for those in positions of authority," she said. "Ministers can't drink or smoke."

Other women question the relevance of organized religion.

"Among women there tends to be a spirituality that's more related to the life-giving process and the earth than to formal religion," said Lyda Fuller from YWCA.