The Roman Catholic Church has held the doctrine that there is no salvation without the church, and has typically referred to the church as mother, but this would appear to be a self serving doctrine, strengthening the threat of excommunication. The biblical references are harder to nail down, but the scripture often associates cities with women, perhaps in the sense that they are birthplaces of civilization; Eg. Babylon the great, the mother of harlotries. The scripture tells us of spiritual authorities in the heavenly places, angelic beings with power and influence in their own "regions" of the earth. The bible gives us descriptions of them using masculine forms, e.g. princes, but this doesn't mean that there aren't those in feminine form. Certainly some of the demons of the nations that were worshipped as idols were represented as women or female animals. All these things being said, God alone is our savior, so saying that the church is necessary for salvation seems a little bit blasphemous, and yet the body of Christ remains His presence upon the earth empowered with the gospel. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the verse that says that we, the saints, are seated with Christ in the heavenly places; we're there and we're here. Perhaps that has to do with us entering into eternity (in spirit), but perhaps it doesn't. I think that the topic was intended to be inflamatory and divisive, but it wouldn't be the first.