Massachusetts Conference Edition
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by Tiffany Vail, Associate for Communication and Communication Technologies
December 2005/January 2006
While the nation was observing the death of one pioneering woman – Civil Rights
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Keynote speaker and author Kathleen Norris speaks to one of the crowd at the Women in Ministry event. |
Activist Rosa Parks – women ministers, many of them pioneers in their own right, gathered together to support and challenge one another at the Massachusetts Conference’s “Called Together – Together Called: A Celebration of Women in Ministry.”
The unique event, held Nov. 1 – 3 at the Westin-Waltham Hotel, was a chance to rejoice in the fact that 49 percent of active Massachusetts Conference clergy are now women – and that 80 percent of Conference churches have been served by a female clergyperson in some role.
And a celebration it was, with four rousing worship services, numerous workshops, lively mealtime conversations and a keynote address with author Kathleen Norris that morphed into a poetry reading. More than 275 women took part in the entire event, and more than 400 women and men attended the kick-off event with Norris.
But while the mood throughout the three days was upbeat and supportive, it was also clear that women are still wrestling with their leadership roles in the church.
“The prophetic voice of our ministry is not yet what it should be,” preached
Rev. Dr. Susan Smith, pastor of the Advent United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. “God called us to be ministers so the people would be served like they have never been served before.”
Smith said women, by virtue of their own life experiences, should be uniquely qualified to minister to those who have been pushed down, abused and discriminated against. But, she said, too often female pastors – just like their male counterparts – get too comfortable in their churches.
“God didn’t call us to be just like the men,” she said. “God called us to be the nurturers that we are.”
“Shame on us,” Smith said, “if we are not picking up on our specialness, our glory ... We have power by virtue of being Christian women. We follow the greatest revolutionary of all time.”
At another worship service, Rev. Barbara Lundblad, Associate Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, said it was God who gave Rosa Parks “the power to stay seated” when the power structures of society demanded that she stand.
Parks, Lundblad said, was not an accidental activist, as she has often been portrayed. She was active in the NAACP, and had been kicked off of the same bus, by the same bus driver, in the past.
Parks, she said, “dared to claim” the power given to her by God.
Female pioneers in the church who have also claimed that power were present throughout the event. Older clergy women who were the lone females in their seminary classes and the first women called to serve local churches rubbed elbows with recent seminary graduates who instead experienced being surrounded primarily by women while they earned their degrees.
But while their stories differed, they shared a frustration with barriers they have perceived.
In one workshop, a recently retired clergywoman recalled how, when she became the only woman in her seminary class, some of her fellow feminists accused her of “selling out” for joining the male establishment. Across the room, a young pastor expressed frustration that many churches are willing to call women to associate pastor positions only.
Interestingly, the event began with an acknowledgement of the role that a number of men had in assisting women into the ministry.
Interim Conference Minister & President Stephen Sterner kicked off the event by honoring the past and present Associate Conference Ministers in the Areas who work in settlement, helping match pastors with churches.
“It was at the settlement table where a commitment was made to send at least one woman’s profile to each search committee,” Sterner said.
And while Sterner called it remarkable that 80 percent of Conference churches have been served by women – he also said that it being remarkable is a sign that there is more work yet to be done.