Overview
Numbers of Women Clergy Increasing Dramatically
Women, who have long supported and strengthened the mission of The United Methodist Church, are stepping into the pulpit in ever greater numbers. The number of clergywomen who serve the church has seen a dramatic increase at every level, from local pastors to bishops. As of December 2006, nearly 10,000 United Methodist clergywomen made up about 27 percent of the church’s total active clergy. That is up from just 15.8 percent in 1995.Clergywomen represent 21.5 percent of more than 26,000 pastors-in-charge, but only about 1 percent of senior clergy in churches with 1,000-plus members are women, compared to 6 percent for men. About 15 percent of female elders are district superintendents, and more than 1,000 are racial-ethnic. The UMC was the first mainline Christian denomination to have a woman bishop, and in total, has elected 21 women bishops, 16 of whom are active.
According to the Association of Theological Schools’ 2002-2003 Fact Book on Theological Education, the number of women seeking seminary degrees more than tripled between 2002 and 2003, from about 10,000 to almost 32,000 (31 percent of all students). In 1995, the total was only 7,602. In the 13 United Methodist theological schools, women enrolled in master’s programs in fall 2002 totaled 1,442 (52 percent), compared to 1,270 men (48 percent).
History
Clergywomen in The United Methodist Church and its predecessor bodies have a rich history, dating from John Wesley’s mid-eighteenth century pronouncement of women’s call to preach as “extraordinary.”In 1847, the United Brethren Church commended the first woman to preach, approving licensing and ordaining women, and granting conference membership in 1889.
The Methodist Protestant Church ordained its first woman deacon in 1866, and its first elder in 1875, although Anna Howard Shaw, ordained an elder in 1880, is perhaps the most well-known.
In 1920 the Methodist Episcopal Church granted women the right to preach, and, in 1924, decided to ordain women as local deacons and local elders.
The 1956 General Conference of the Methodist Church’s approved full clergy rights for women, commemorated in 2006 by The United Methodist Church’s year-long celebration of the fiftieth anniversary.
Firsts for United Methodist Clergywomen
- Maude Jensen became the first woman full member of an annual conference soon after the 1956 General Conference;
- Sallie Crenshaw became the first African-American woman to be ordained in The Methodist Church in 1958;
- Margaret Henrichsen was the first woman district superintendent, appointed in 1967;
- Marjorie Swank Matthews was elected the first woman bishop in 1980;
- Leontine T.C. Kelly was the first African-American woman bishop, elected in 1984;
- Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher was the first woman president of the Council of Bishops, serving one year beginning May 2002;
- Rosemarie Wenner was elected bishop for the Germany Episcopal Area in 2005, becoming the first woman bishop to serve outside the United States.
Profile
Buddhist Monk’s Daughter Had Little Exposure to Christianity
As the daughter of a Buddhist monk growing up in Japan, Motoe Yamada had no idea God had a plan for her. But, she now believes, “It was God’s will to push me into ministry.” Motoe Yamada (left) and friends |
“I had virtually no exposure to Christianity. I went to one Christian worship service. But, even then, I felt my heart strangely warmed and my sins forgiven,” she recalls. She would come to understand that feeling much later in life.
Yamada left Japan “to study international relations — to be able to work in an organization like the United Nations — and to learn to speak English,” she recalls. At the University of Toledo, “I had a hard time making friends and adjusting to the Midwestern U.S. culture.”
A United Methodist friend suggested Yamada go to a United Methodist church and get involved in campus ministry. She formed a special bond with the Rev. Dee Baker, a United Methodist pastor who helped lead an ecumenical campus ministry, and began attending worship services and Bible study sessions.
“After about a year, I had a spiritual experience,” she recalls, when Baker told her, “Jesus loves you.”
“I had heard it before, but it made sense that time. I felt unconditional love. I realized Jesus knew me before I was born. I was reborn and had a spiritual baptism.” Six months later, she was baptized in a United Methodist church.
After her election to the United Methodist Student Movement national steering committee, Yamada met clergy from all over the country. “I saw the possibility to be my kind of pastor. I felt a nudging to go to seminary,” she said.
Yamada entered graduate school, still unsure about seminary. “As part of a secular university, I couldn’t talk about God when counseling students (as a peer counselor). I wanted to put Jesus in the center of the conversation,” she recalls.
During her graduate school years, she “dreamed about the day when I could study about Jesus,” a dream lived out when she received a scholarship to Pacific School of Religion. She now serves at Wesley United Methodist Church, San Jose, Calif., as minister of education and nurture, working mainly with children and young adults. Yamada is a probationer (resident in ministry) in the California-Nevada annual conference and hopes to be ordained in 2009.
“We have four worship services; I preach at the contemporary service,” she reports. “We just started a children’s ministry and have hired a director. We’re up to 85 young adults and 75 youth. The number of children in attendance is also picking up.”
Vice chair of the United Methodist Association for Asian American and Pacific Islander clergywomen, she is one of four United Methodist members of the World Council of Churches Central Committee. Her ecumenical experience has included stints on the Council for Ecumenical Student Christian Ministry and the North American Regional Committee for the World Student Christian Federation. She is vice chair of the Ecumenical Networks Committee for the National Council of Churches and has participated in two WCC consultations.
She will preach at EXPLORATION 2009, a gathering for young people (high-school seniors through age 24) considering ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church.
FAQ
Why does The United Methodist Church ordain women?
The United Methodist Church stresses equality and the ministry of all believers, not reserved for a select few. Women have equal access to God’s call to full-time ministry as do men. Official denominational statements, commentaries by several United Methodists, United Methodist News Service stories, and other resources are available at Women Clergy in The United Methodist Church Web site.How many women serve as lead pastors?
Clergywomen, who are 27 percent or nearly one-third of the UMC’s total active clergy, make up 21.5 percent of more than 26,000 pastors-in-charge.How does a clergywoman find a job within The United Methodist Church?
Elders are appointed to posts by bishops, rather than local churches hiring their own pastors, as in some denominations. In this way, a local church is never without a pastor, and a pastor never goes without a setting for ministry. This system is known as itinerancy.Deacons are non-itinerant. Their appointments may be initiated by the deacon, an agency seeking her service, the bishop, or the district superintendent.
Can clergywomen serve as district superintendents or bishops?
The UMC was the first mainline Christian denomination to have a woman bishop and in total, has elected 21 women bishops.About 15 percent of female elders serve as district superintendents.
Are more women entering ministry now than in the past?
The number of women seeking seminary degrees more than tripled between 2002 and 2003, from about 10,000 to almost 32,000, according to the Association of Theological Schools’ 2002-2003 Fact Book on Theological Education. In the 13 United Methodist theological schools, more than half the students enrolled in master’s programs in fall 2002 were women. There were 1,442 women enrolled, or 52 percent of the total, compared to 1,270 men.Challenges
UMC Clergywomen Still Face Many Challenges
The United Methodist Church grants women equal access to God’s call to full-time ministry and is committed to inclusiveness and increasingly diverse theological perspectives. According to the Rev. HiRho Park, director of continuing formation for ministry at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the church’s itinerancy appointment system “gives congregations the opportunity to experience female clergy leadership.”Even with positive track records as congregational leaders, and the opportunity for continuous education without gender discrimination, clergywomen still face challenges.
A clergywomen’s role in the church is often marked by overload, confused perceptions, and unrealistic expectations, Park says. Many experience discouragement from other clergy in their home church and are hampered by the overriding male paradigm of ministry leadership. “Although the appointment system may lessen initial resistance, a local congregation may still fear church tension, decreased membership, and conflict,” Park says.
Only about 1 percent of female clergy serve congregations of more than 1,000 members.
A United Methodist Women Lead Pastors Project, being conducted by Park’s office, is examining ways to address this phenomenon.
The project will:
- establish an online learning, continuing education, and support network for female lead pastors in large-membership churches;
- research their leadership styles;
- facilitate a mentoring program between lead women pastors and women who are potentially lead pastors by communicating with bishops and cabinet;
- open wider discussion around findings from the project.
Racial-ethnic clergywomen face additional challenges. The retention study showed that when racial-ethnic women leave local church ministry, their exit is often permanent. A 2004 study, The Status of Racial/Ethnic Minority Clergywomen in The United Methodist Church (PDF) examined issues of lower- to mid-level appointments and limited upward career mobility, with lower salary and job insecurity, regardless of the changes of social perception of women in ministry.
Park says the increasing number of clergy couples has also become an issue for clergywomen, who often receive less desirable appointments than their clergy spouses. Others are forced to leave parish ministry to keep their families together in the same geographical areas.
