Online Archives

COMMENTARIES

by Kathryn Bailey Moore

Forty-one years ago in May, I received my License to Preach from the Susquehanna Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. At that time, 1964, I was in my second year at Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree and a Master of Arts in philosophy of religion. I was working with the EUB Ohio East Conference inner-city group ministry in Cleveland.

I moved to Washington, D.C., in 1966 to finish my education at Wesley Theological Seminary and to work at Albright Memorial, a church in the EUB Susquehanna Conference. I was ordained in that conference in 1967. In 1968, the year of the Methodist-EUB merger, I began working at Foundry UMC as its inner-city minister.
What has changed for women in ordained ministry since then?

Almost everything ? including our denominational, geographical and theological-academic designations: B.D.s are now M. Divs; Oberlin GST in Ohio is now Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn.; the Susquehanna Conference of the EUB Church is now the Central Pennsylvania and Baltimore-Washington conferences of The United Methodist Church; License to Preach is now ordination as a probationary member on the way to ordination as an elder; inner city work is now called community, urban or metropolitan ministry; assistant pastors are often specialists in spirituality, Christian education or evangelism.

The reality of women in ministry is as ancient as Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, the first apostle. But designated status with terminology for women as pastors in our tradition and most others, is still not yet 50 years old. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in our tradition.

My work in ordained ministry has been concentrated in the urban area in cross-cultural settings. Churches I served were most often in African-American communities, called 'The Black Church.' I've also worked in the Reconciling Congregations Program that included gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
members.

Ministry was my family's business. My grandfather was a preacher. My father was a preacher and an Army chaplain. My uncle is a preacher. My aunt even started the process. So it was natural that I would become an ordained pastor as well. The people not ordained in my family were the lay leaders of churches ? lay preachers, trustees, leaders of the women's unit, teachers of the Men's Bible and Ladies' parlor classes, leaders of the nursery and youth fellowship.

I preached at Cadet Girl Scout Camp near Ft. Belvoir, Va., taught the five-year-old boys Sunday school class in Yokohama, Japan, led the Youth Fellowship and preached in church wherever we were. I taught Bible classes, led groups in social mission projects, taught released-time classes in school and volunteered at Henry Street Settlement House in New York City. In my experience, church was family. Ministers were simply lay leaders who were ordained.

The changes in ministry today for women are like night and day, including:

• Toleration and inclusion or adoption as a model for ministry has moved from a family connection or sponsored relationships model to individual entrepreneurship model.
• Focus on duties in ministry has changed from a focus on particular duties, such as educational ministry or social services (i.e., one of a staff of ministers) to pastor as the administrative, program and ministry charge d'affaire to senior pastor in charge of a full staff.
• The stark numbers of women pastors has changed from being the only one, or at least one of a very few, as an ordained woman pastor to just about parity of opportunity and responsibilities. Now about half the pastors in a conference are ordained women.
• The threat: It used to be that simply being there joyfully as you were didn't require having to prove anything. Now the prevalence of women in ministry is therefore competitive, so that we are always on guard and on the spot to demonstrate (or prove) our mettle.

Is this progress? In numbers, yes. In reception and attitude, probably.

Remaining the same, however, is this ? prejudice still exists against women as pastors. There are still denominations, churches and individuals who do not tolerate, permit, nor theologically or personally sanction women as pastors. Two thousand years post-Christ's acceptance of Mary Magdalene as a leader of the faith community, such attitudes are simply not faithful.

Change has been constant for women in ministry but God never leaves a witness alone. In 1964, I was ordained with one other woman, Norma Kinard, in the elder class. Two women were also consecrated for Christian education ministry. That made four of us together.

The year I entered seminary, 1962, there was a true miracle, though none of us realized it at the time. There were actually seven women at Oberlin G.S.T. We never
felt alone. Together we were a united, accepted, never-going-back front.

We needed that support.

Even when I was often alone, the only one, the only woman in an experimental group ministry (like the Ten Central City Churches), or even the only white person in an inter-racial endeavor (because my being there made it inter-racial), I felt supported and confident.

It has been my proud and cherished privilege to serve 41 years as an ordained pastor in The United Methodist Church and its antecedent communions. 'Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift.'

The Rev. Kathryn L. Bailey Moore retired in January 2003. She is the longest serving woman ordained in the Baltimore Conference.