Published Sept. 18, 2011

http://www.decaturdaily.com/stories/Revolution-in-His-house,85214

WOMEN MINISTERS

Revolution in His house

Area female pastors discuss difficulties in taking on role some consider mans domain

By Catherine Godbey

Outside the holy walls, they lead companies, run cities and states and head medical teams. Inside, some are relegated to the pews, unable to lead.

For 2,000 years, the issue of whether women should pastor churches has existed. Those in opposition and support of female ministers pointed to the Bible.

Jesus was a revolutionary. He was a liberator. Look what he did for women. He liberated them so they would be equal, said the Rev. Becky Lowery, pastor at Bethlehem United Methodist in Athens.

Who was at the foot of the cross? Who was at the tomb? Who proclaimed that Jesus had risen? Women have been in the ministry since day one, said Sister Teresa Walsh at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church.

Should women pastor? The answer depends on the interpretation of the Bible.

Arguments against female ministers center around 1 Corinthians.

Let your women keep silent in the churches: For it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also says the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husband at home: For it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church.

People take that out of context, said the Rev. Vicki Tonini, pastor at Belle Mina United Methodist. Paul was writing this to a specific congregation at a specific time. At that time, women were uneducated and men and women sat on separate sides of the church. The women would yell out to the men if they did not understand a passage.

After 1,800 years of silence in the church, women slowly gained more responsibilities.

The Quaker, Congregationalist, Universalist and Salvation Army churches led the way, officially accepting female leaders in the early- and mid-1800s.

The Salvation Army Church, from its founding in 1865, was ordaining women as ministers with preaching and pastoral responsibilities, said Warner Durnell, North Alabama Presbytery executive director. It took us Presbyterians and other mainline Protestant groups almost an entire century to catch up with our Salvation Army sisters and brothers.

Spurred by the infusion of women in the workplace during World War II, more denominations started reconsidering the role of females.

In 1956, the United Methodist Church gave females full rights as clergy, and the Presbyterian Church USA ordained women as ministers of word and sacrament.

One-third of our active ordained teaching elders are women, Durnell said. Given the almost 2,000 years of church history to look back upon, the growth from none to one-third of all actively serving ministers in North Alabama Presbytery being women is a rather sizable leap.

In 1971, the Rev. Paige McRight was the first woman to stand for examination for ordination in front of the North Alabama Presbytery. For three hours, she answered questions.

Until that moment, McRight, now executive director of the Central Florida Presbytery, did not know the controversy surrounding her ordination. The daughter of an Army chaplain who helped build First Presbyterian in Hartselle, McRight grew up teaching Sunday school and knowing her gifts mattered.

I didnt know women in the church was a controversial issue until I was on the floor. One person asked me, Youre not ever going to want to serve a church, are you? At that time, I didnt, McRight said. I wanted to be a pastoral counselor. But that woke me up to the fact the church was way more conflicted than I knew.

Though lessened, the conflict still exists in denominations, with some congregations hesitant to accept women leaders.

During the past 40 years, women, no matter the profession, have faced the same challenges. They have to juggle family and work responsibilities. And they have to work to gain acceptance in the professional workplace, McRight said.

Once exposed to women preachers, the hesitancy typically becomes acceptance, said William Willimon, bishop of the United Methodist Churchs North Alabama Conference.

Some may not think it is a great idea or they may be surprised by it. But as the list of churches with women ministers grows, so does the list of people who said they received their best ministry and leadership from women, Willimon said. I wonder if maybe they work just a little harder and give a little more care in their leadership.

Opening the ministry to women created an influx of many second-career pastors, former teachers, secretaries and stay-at-home mothers.

The second-career pastor is not unique to women, but it is more prevalent among women, Willimon said.

My theory is, many were probably discouraged in earlier days and told things like it is strange for a woman to be a pastor. They were probably deterred when they shouldnt have been, he said.

The Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women in 1976.

The Rev. Pat Wingo, clergy deployment deputy of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, said of the 175 retired and active clergy, 40 are women.

Virtually all of the churches, Wingo said, are open to women clergy.

While more and more denominations approve the ordination of women and most of the churches accept women clergy, female ministers are not universally accepted.

In 2008, LifeWay Christian Bookstores made headlines for pulling Gospel Today magazines with a cover story about female pastors from their shelves. The Southern Baptist Conventions own bookstore pulled the issue because the message went against the belief that only men could pastor.

Although on a national level Southern Baptists discourage women from preaching, some of the independent churches selected women to lead their congregations.

At the Catholic Church, Sister Walsh can proclaim the lecture, share Eucharist and bring the Eucharist to the homebound. These duties she could not do 50 years ago.

When I entered the ministry I had two choices: teaching and nursing. I never thought I could serve during service, she said.

When asked if women would ever become priests, Walsh said, Its in Gods hands and he surprises us sometimes.

Sherry Harris

Age: 59

Pastor at: Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Decatur

In the ministry: 10 years

After some prodding from a high school senior, Sherry Harris turned to the inspirational passage for Sept. 19 in the Oswald Chambers devotional calendar that the church gave seniors for graduation.

She read the message for her birthday:

"I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel."

She was done. She was done fighting. She was done running. Nine months of searching for every excuse not to enter the ministry had vanished.

A year later, Harris was leading Somerville United Methodist Church, a rural church with three former women pastors.

"The congregation was used to women pastors, but not everyone in the community was," Harris said. "I got some people asking, Are you one of them lady preachers?'

"That would get me a little frazzled. I never got angry, though, because I know my call is real."

The call was a combination of Popsicle-stick projects, Noah, a friend named Debbie, dreams and prayers that spanned 40 years.

Growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee, church was an annual event. Every Easter, Harris, her mother and her two sisters would don their Sunday best and head to church.

And then, of course, there was vacation Bible school.

"Basically my only contact with the church was every summer I would go to vacation Bible school with my friend Debbie," Harris said. "I loved it because they knew my name and were really glad to see me."

It is also where Harris, at age 8, felt her first calling into the ministry.

When the teacher tasked the class with drawing a Bible story, she selected Noah and the flood, a tale that captivated her.

After drawing what Harris described as "the worst ark and the worst rainbow in the history of arks and rainbows," she unveiled the picture and told the story of Noah to the group. The teacher asked her to present it at the convocation.

"I didn't know what convocation was, but it sounded like a big deal," she said. "I told my mom, and she and both my aunts came, and they all had high heels on. That's how I knew it was a big deal."

The self-described "pathologically shy" girl, who almost failed an English class in high school because she could not present a book report, walked to the altar and told the story of Noah to more than 100 people.

"I wasn't nervous at all. I remember standing up and saying I can do this. The only way I could do that was because of God," Harris said.

The fleeting call returned four decades later, after she had married a Methodist and started attending church when she was six months pregnant.

"I knew I wanted a different kind of life for my son, and I thought the church and God had something to do with creating that," said Harris, who joked she was the size of a small Volkswagen when she was baptized 8 months into her pregnancy.

For the next 15 years, Harris threw herself into the church, joining the United Methodist Women, teaching Sunday school, never missing a service and working on the church councils.

Her calling occurred at the Emmaus Walk, a three-day spiritual retreat at Camp Sumatanga, when "strange things" began happening.

Harris felt the urge to pray for her pastor and a woman, a stranger to Harris, who poured her heart out to her. They talked and prayed.