A senior member of a Western Isles kirk congregation has claimed women have never expressed any interest in becoming elders.
John Cunningham said there were no female members of kirk sessions on Lewis due to a lack of interest.
The Stornoway High Church elder added that women should not be forced to take on leadership roles and must offer their services through free choice.
Mr Cunningham spoke out after a senior Church of Scotland minister said ministers who refused to treat women like equals should leave the denomination.
Former moderator of the General Assembly the Very Rev David Lacy said he was appalled that his colleague the Very Rev Lorna Hood was banned from visiting some areas within the Presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye.
He claimed these parishes were run by “powerful grumbling grunters” and a “few oddballs” who held views that equated to “antiquated gangsterism”.
Mr Cunningham, a former Presbytery of Lewis moderator, said some congregations had “a few” women deaconesses but no women elders.
“That would be a cultural thing and just the way the Church has developed in the islands, similar to the situation in Lochcarron and Skye,” he added.
“You would not want to force women to become elders unless they come forward themselves.
“Our experience is they have not come forward seeking to become elders in Lewis.”
More than 200 people recently left Stornoway High Church over the gay clergy row that has engulfed the Kirk and joined the Free Church.
Around 100 members have elected to stay in the congregation, which has been left with no elders, which could provide an opportunity to elect women.
Mrs Hood said: “I would hope that wherever there are places women are not being asked or encouraged to be elders people will find someway of addressing this issue.
“Name calling or demands is not going to be a help but perhaps some kind of understanding process for those who are so against it to actually sit down with those who feel hurt by it would help.”
Free Church ecumenical relations convener the Rev Dr Iain D Campbell claimed the Kirk was undergoing a “meltdown of evangelical witness”.
Delegates of the denomination’s General Assembly backed Inverness Rev David Meredith who described Mr Lacy’s remarks about congregations with no female elders as “chilling”.