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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Monday was May the Fourth, which is now known as Star Wars Day. I hope you celebrated appropriately. But Monday not only the recognizde the greatest movie franchise of all time, even with the bad ones thrown in, but it was also the day we could celebrate female ordination. On May 4, 1956, the then Methodist Church voted to allow for the ordination of women. This congregation was just short of five years old at the time.
There were other smaller denominations, including several with Wesleyan roots, as well as independent churches, that had been ordaining women for much longer. But, along with the Presbyterian Church USA, which allowed ordination for women in the same year, the Methodist Church was the first of the mainline denominations to allow for female clergy. The others wouldn’t make that move for roughly another twenty years.
I have a purple stole that I wear occasionally that was given to me by my internship pastor. It had been her mother’s stole, who was one of the first women to be ordained in the Methodist Church in what was then the New York Annual Conference. She started as a local pastor in the late 50s, assisting her husband who was a pastor, and then in the early 60s started pastoring her own churches.
She and I had many conversations about what that was like, and one of the things that always stuck out to me was she said during the Vietnam War, she thought being female was advantageous to her. She said that fathers of soldiers, as well as returning soldiers, could open up to her about their fears, worries and memories, that most of them would never have been able to share with a male pastor. But, that does not mean her job was easy; far from it.
As I’ve said before, I have never had someone say to me “I’ve never had a male pastor before.” Or, “I don’t believe in male clergy.” Or, worse, “The Bible forbids what you are doing.” I know that when I bring the girls to work with me that it is viewed very, very differently than when female clergy do the same, even at the same church. And only once, that I know of, has someone left the church because I was a man; I was replacing a woman. But, this happens all the time to female clergy.
I have been blessed to have had several female clergy be mentors to me in my ministry, and I am all the better for the way they have given of themselves in that role. And for most of them, they didn’t need to, they chose to, and they could have also said that they would prefer to mentor other women, but instead they took me under their wings and I am eternally grateful.
And really it shouldn’t be surprising that the Methodist Church was one of the first to ordain women because of John Wesley’s own stance on the issue. While he was a man of his own time, he did struggle with the prohibitions against women preaching because he clearly saw that women were producing fruit through their ministry. That included his own mother, Susanna Wesley, who was a driving force in his own faith life, and would take charge of her husband’s parish while he was gone and would draw more people to worship and study through her work than John’s father ever did. Wesley saw similar results in many women in the movement who also felt a call to the ministry, as we still see today. Just as we can see male clergy who don’t seem to be producing fruit.
And for those who want to argue that scripture forbids female clergy, their argument is not as strong as they would like it to be. First, in 1 Corinthians, where it has Paul allegedly saying that women should be silent in churches, I have and can argue that that is not original to the text, for many reasons, probably the most significant being that it doesn’t match other portions of the letter, let alone some of his other writings. It is a much later addition to the letter. And second, in 1 Timothy, which is not written by Paul, while it often gets translated that women are not permitted to teach, that they must be quiet, many translators argue strongly that the phrase is not plural, but singular: “I do not allow that woman to teach.” And while some would like to emphasize these passages, they simultaneously, and very conveniently, ignore all the other rules about worship laid out in these same passages.
So, as we celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, I think it’s important to celebrate all the women in our lives who have made a difference, not just our natural moms. And that would definitely include the women in the church who have made a difference for us as teachers, mentors, clergy and many other roles. Reach out and let them know, or simply give thanks to God for all that they have done for you and so many others in being God’s witness and light to the world.
Blessings,
John
What I Am Currently Reading:
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Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose
- Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs
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