However, according to researcher Bruce A. Robinson with the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, many Christian faith groups still refuse to consider women for ordination, including the Roman Catholic Church, all Eastern Orthodox churches, a minority of provinces within the Anglican Communion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many fundamentalist and other evangelical Protestant denominations. Clergywomen who face opposition must challenge interpretation of scripture. Opponents of female ordination cite St. Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:2: “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent.” Proponents also point to St. Paul’s words, in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In a report published in 2002, Women’s Path Into Ministry: Six Major Studies, religious researcher Dr. Edward C. Lehman, Jr. argued that women’s ordination is one of the most significant recent developments in American religion, fostering change in churchgoers’ attitudes toward women in leadership and expanding the concept of ministry beyond the local congregation. Drawing upon research conducted between 1982 and 1998, Lehman claimed that women have successfully navigated seminary education and, at the same time, introduced many changes in theological education. Despite female success in seminary, some denominations still resist or refuse to accept women as pastoral leaders. Lehman contends that the position of those who discriminate against women in the church is incompatible with core Judeo-Christian values of justice, freedom, and other-centered love. Ironically, he says, secular institutions such as politics, industry, business, law, education, and sports are doing a better job of applying those values than are churches that subordinate women as a matter of policy. As more church members recognize that discrepancy between Christian values and exclusionary policies, church structures will continue to open up to women. Although Lehman predicted that evolution could take a generation or even a century to occur, many Wesleyan women are working to speed the process. Though they admit gender discrimination exists, they are not deterred and claim ministering skills and gifts are not gender-specific. Many Wesleyan women in ministry credit their alma mater for preparing them to pursue advanced degrees, formal training, and leadership roles. Paige Getty ’93 realizes that, perhaps because of the progress made by her older female colleagues, she 4
has never felt particularly oppressed or mistreated. At Wesleyan she was nurtured just enough, and challenged even more, so that she could confidently recognize her gifts for ministry. Paige earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard University in 1999 and currently serves as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, Maryland. When Ann Godwin Denham ’57 was growing up in the Methodist Church, women could not be ministers and were excluded from full ordination. Although she had never seen a woman in the formal role, Ann was inspired by tales of her great grandmother, who rode a mule with her two young daughters to speak at camp meetings on the frontiers of Tennessee. As a teen, Ann talked openly about her dream of becoming a preacher. “One of my male friends at church warned me: no man will marry you,” she recalled. “Wow, I thought. Of course I would marry; these were the fifties, after all!” Ann married after her junior year at Wesleyan. Four years and three babies later, she returned to school and finished her degree. In 1963 Ann graduated from Northeastern while her husband earned a doctorate from Harvard. After relocating to Tennessee, Ann, then in her late thirties, enrolled in divinity school at Vanderbilt University. She was fairly well accepted though she was the only woman in the pastoral program and there were no women on the faculty. Ann was the only woman in her graduating class of 1971. She has been told she is the second woman in Tennessee to become an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church. Ann was ordained, but never served as pastor. “Jobs were hard to come by. Still, I’ve always known myself as called to preach,” she said. “I see preaching now as a willingness to share knowledge, self, and life.” In 1982, Ann surrendered her ordination and was confirmed as a Catholic. Today she volunteers at her parish, serves on committees, teaches scripture, organizes fundraisers, and leads retreats. She co-authored a book with Gert Wilkinson, Cloister of the Heart: Association of Contemplative Sisters. Though some Catholic policy concerns Ann, she’s found her home. Catholics, she said, are hungry for scripture. Now that women are giving Gospel Reflections at mass, she feels her gift for preaching has been given back to her. Over the years, female scholars pursued religious study and earned degrees that could not advance their careers. Today, though most congregants still prefer male clergy in the pulpit, women hold a great
number of leadership positions in many churches. Jennifer Stiles Williams ’93 currently serves as the minister of relational evangelism at St. Luke’s in Orlando, the largest United Methodist Church in the Florida conference. As her career advanced, she served twice in churches in which she was both the first woman and the youngest pastor. “The challenges for women in ministry are very different from those faced by our male colleagues,” Jennifer said. “From the pitch of your voice to being a voice of authority in issues of finances, from being pregnant in the pulpit to things as silly as rethinking the wireless microphone because you don’t have a belt.” Jennifer has helped grow the membership of several churches in small communities, and admitted that a bit of notoriety surrounds her because of the interest people have in the novelty of a woman pastor. She feels that in a church now where there are two main preaching voices, a male and a female, many members find themselves going to two services because they enjoy different perspectives on the same scripture. According to Jennifer, there is something unique and distinctive about the gifts of women in ministry. She sees women leading with less hierarchy in a flat system of staff and laity. “This leadership is pivotal in postmodern emerging church ministries and is attractive to younger generations in our culture looking for a different definition of church. People are looking for a different, more accessible voice to help them experience a faith journey, and hearing a woman pastor may offer them an entry point into the church. And honestly,” she said, “the story of the birth of Jesus during a candle lit Christmas Eve service just has a different feel when it’s preached by a nine-month pregnant woman, weeks away from birthing her first son.” Jennifer’s first encounter with someone opposed to women ministers was at a Bible study in Macon while she was a Wesleyan student. A man from another denomination told Jennifer, whose father was a minister at the time, that while women teaching Sunday School was fine, women leading congregations went against God’s ordinances and would be punishable in hell. While Jennifer was in college, both her mother and her sister became pastors and were ordained into The United Methodist Church. Jennifer said, “I had never actually known a woman pastor before my sister entered seminary in the 1980s, but ironically, I also never even considered this was an issue for people.” Jennifer claimed the pioneering efforts of Bishop Charlene Payne Kammerer ’70 encouraged her to explore in depth what