August 2021
The Commission's Report
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women advocates for the full participation of women in the total life of The United Methodist Church. We’re helping the church recognize every person – clergy and lay, women and men, adults and children - as full and equal parts of God’s human family. We believe that a fully engaged and empowered membership is vital to The United Methodist Church’s mission "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."
How Far We’ve Come and the Distance Still to Go: UMC Clergywomen are Still Significantly Undercompensated
GCSRW has chronicled the progress being made in closing the disparities in compensation for United Methodist Church (UMC) clergy by gender. In 2011, GCSRW reported that clergywomen, on average, made 13% less than clergymen. In 2015 this pay gap had worsened, such that fulltime active clergywomen made, on average, 16% less salary, 12% less parsonage amount, and 14% less housing allowance than clergymen. GCSRW has commissioned Dr. Magaela Bethune to be the lead research consultant in a study to explore the persistent compensation disparities along the lines of gender using 2020 U.S. compensation data from the denomination.
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Presents I AM Her Lunch and Learn- Welcoming a Woman Pastor Part II on Thursday, August 26th at 12 PM CDT
GCSRW is taking last year’s I AM Her Women’s Leadership Summit and bringing you I AM Her Lunch and Learn! Bring your lunch and join this movement of women to be inspired, be empowered, and to be equipped to do the work both personally, and professionally within The United Methodist Church.

On August 26th from 12-1:30 PM CDT, we will be going through Welcoming a Woman Pastor Part II, a conversation with Alice Williams and Claire Bowen.

All are invited to attend, but especially those that are involved at all levels of the appointment process. We will discuss how to ensure the transition of welcoming a woman pastor in a congregation goes smoothly. We will also have conversation around how to prepare and create an environment of hospitality.

Join this informative session at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82200182771?pwd=Z1FkTkVXdFRlckVoTkhUR0RQakJJQT09

Meeting ID: 822 0018 2771
Passcode: 648639

Did you miss Part I of Welcoming a Woman Pastor? Click here to access the zoom recording!

Save the date for Thursday, September 23rd at 12 Central! We will be having our next Lunch and Learn where we will going through our latest salary study with Magaela C. Bethune, MS, MPA.
On the GCSRW Blog: North Alabama Annual Conference COSROW’s Parity Resolution
"In 2017, the North Alabama Conference COSROW felt that women clergy in our Conference were not receiving the same opportunities in appointments that male clergy were. Increasingly, clergy and laity were expressing the same concerns to COSROW. In order to determine whether this sense of disparity in the appointive process was accurate or not, the North Alabama COSROW decided to designate two members to research appointments in our Annual Conference and, if the data supported our suspicions that women were receiving fewer opportunities for advancement, to write a Resolution to address the issue." Rev. Dr. Kelsey Grissom from the North Alabama Annual Conference is this issue's guest blogger. She shares how the North Alabama Annual Conference conducted their own salary study and developed a Parity Resolution from its findings.


On the GCSRW Blog: More Than “Just a Deacon”: Celebrating 25 Years of The Order of Deacon
During GCSRW's spring board meeting, we started discussing the 25th anniversary of the Order of Deacon. Two of our current board members were at the 1996 General Conference. One even chaired the legislative committee that handled the legislation that would eventually pass to bring life to the Order of Deacon. In this blog, our director of communications interviewed our board members who were either at the 1996 General Conference or are currently pursuing ministry as a deacon to share their reflections and hope for the Order to celebrate this milestone.