The Leland Seminary and DCBC Celebrate Women in Ministry

While some were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the John Leland Center for Theological Studies was hosting a Celebration of Women in Ministry with DCBC at the Baptist Building. Leland President, Rev. Dr. Ken Pruitt, welcomed seminary graduates, current students, and friends and members of DCBC and, following a blessing over a lovely buffet supper, rich fellowship ensued around the tables in the ballroom. The ambiance was simply lovely thanks to Leland alum, Mindy Stewart

Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin, DCBC’s Executive Director/Minister, signaled the beginning of the evening’s presentations by singing “Children of God, We Are Marching to Zion.” She then reflected on the influence of those who have gone before, offering a litany of the women who have shaped and formed her life and ministry. Some of these women she knew personally while others were only known in heart, but all helped deepen her relationship with God.

Rev. Dr. Miller Manarin then introduced the first of the women being celebrated. This woman, she explained, made it possible for us to read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Mrs. Willie Pearl Mackey King, deacon and leader with Montgomery Hills Baptist Church (a DCBC church), elicited a laugh when she said, “My name is ‘Willie Pearl’ because, in the South, everyone needs two names!”

Mrs. King then gave a riveting reflection about her encounters while serving with others in the Civil Rights Movement and on the Southern Christian Leadership Council. As she recounted her visit with Fannie Lou Hamer and others in jail after Hamer had been beaten, all present could feel the power of Mrs. King’s call to ministry. She testified to the presence of God in her life, especially for a young person from a small Georgia town. She celebrated the work of God in and through women and declared how exciting it has been for her to know the United States has a woman as Vice-President who also happens to be a woman of color. Earlier, Rev. Dr. Miller Manarin had observed that although Mrs. King is small in stature, she is a giant to us! Dr. Pruitt embraced Mrs. King and she was given a standing ovation.

President Pruitt shared that from the very beginning women have been embraced and encouraged by Leland Seminary and the support of women in ministry is one of its core values. On April 27, 2002, the school’s first graduating class also included the school’s first woman to graduate with a MasterofDivinity,Rev. MarthaPhillips.Just a couple of years earlier, Rev. Phillips had been featured on news services across the country speaking out against the Southern Baptists, which had declared women could no longer be ordained. As a seminarian serving as the interim pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, she became known as “Al Gore’s female pastor” throughout the United States and simply as “Martha” to her congregation. Former Vice President Al Gore and his family were members of the church: It’s where Mrs. Gore had grown up. They supported Rev. Phillips and voted in favor of her being named Mount Vernon Baptist Church’s permanent pastor. Rev. Martha Pillips was a pioneer both as a student and as a pastor. She took a risk joining a new, notyet-accredited seminary and continues to serve God in new ways. The church joined DCBC in 2001.

Leland Seminary has named the new woman in ministry award in honor of Rev. Martha Phillips. The inaugural Martha Phillips Leadership Award for Faithfulness in Pastoral Leadership was given to another pioneering Baptist woman in ministry, Rev. Dr. Ella V. Redfield. In 1994, when no one would call Rev. Dr. Redfield, a graduate of Howard Divinity School (MDiv. and DMin.), to be their senior pastor, she faithfully gathered a group of people and planted New Creation Church. She began with her own funds, and later, DCBC connected New Creation with some funds for church planting from the American Baptist Churches USA While it was not always easy to be a pioneer, Rev. Dr. Redfield faithfully served the congregation of about 50 for decades. She and the New Creation congregation have been featured in stories by the Washington Post, local Gazette and Afro-American newspapers, as well as in American Baptist publications. She is also the co-author of The Circle of Life: Waking Up to the Ultimate Design for Our Lives

Rev. Dr. Redfield has served as Chaplain for the National Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington, D.C.; as a member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health, Spiritual

Ministries Chaplaincy Program; an Instructor at the Howard University School of Divinity Continuing Education Program; and Adjunct Faculty and Colloquy Leader at the Wesley Theological Seminar. She has also held several leadership positions regionally and nationally with the American Baptist Churches, USA, Progressive National Baptist Convention, the former Washington Ministerium, Howard University School of Divinity National Alumni Association, and is a Past President of DCBC. She is currently serving as Chairperson of DCBC’s 150th Anniversary Committee, as a member of the DCBC Ministry Roundtable, and as 2nd Vice President of the Montgomery County Black Ministers Conference.

Rounding out the evening’s speakers was Rev. Lisa Cole Smith, a Leland graduate and leading voice in the church, today. Rev. Cole Smith is the founding pastor and artistic director of Convergence: A Creative Community of Faith in Alexandria, Virginia. She reflected on her life as she seeks a way to merge her calling as an artist and a person of faith. Her mission is to provide training and resources for artists and culture creators who are called to be prophetic critics and imaginative visionaries in our world. Rev. Cole Smith is a guest lecturer at the Leland Seminary, Wesley Seminary and Virginia Theological Seminary in the subjects of worship, theology and arts. She centered her reflection on Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Living a Life

 Pay attention.

 Be astonished.

 Tell about it. Rev. Beth Willetts concluded the lovely evening in prayer, celebrating all that took place and eagerly looking to what is still to come.

President Pruitt offered thanks to DCBC and hopes this Celebration of Women in Ministry will be an annual event. He also gave thanks for the partnership between Leland and DCBC. If you would like to learn more about Leland, which DCBC helped to found, visit https://www.leland.edu/.