422 - Women and The Pastorate

Women and The Pastorate

There are many more women today than ever before in seminaries and divinity schools. In the last few years, the percentage of women seminarians has risen from about 3 percent to 40 percent. In contrast to some years ago, women today do not usually prepare themselves as directors of religious education, teachers of religion in schools and colleges, or even as assistants to senior (men) pastors. Most women very much want equal opportunity in the ministry, and they plan to be ordained to serve as full-time pastors of churches.

But on graduation from seminary, many women find the parish ministry closed to them. Pulpit committees, they discover, are often insensitive, priority is usually given to men, and they report scant denominational assistance in finding preaching-pastoral jobs.

The seminaries and divinity schools have, on the whole, made a remarkable adjustment to the increase of women on campus, and the general response from both students and faculty has been favorable and, in many instances, rejuvenating.

Where are the churches in this new situation? And how are women to cope with committees looking for men or for a possible woman assistant? Through their placement offices the seminaries are trying to help, and many denominations have gone on record as supporting women candidates for ordination. But very, very few women graduates find pastorates.

To appraise this situation more fully, we have invited several women actually involved in pastoral ministry to respond to three questions.

(1)Do you think that women seminarians today are disappointed at the lack of support they receive in their plans for ordination and parish ministry?

(2) From your own personal knowledge of ordained women now active in parish ministry, how would you evaluate their professional status and vocational satisfaction?

(3)If increasing numbers of women train for the pastorate, what do you think the effect will be on the local church, theological education, and the ecumenical future?

Gail A. Ricciuti

Co-Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Byron, N.Y., and Vice-Moderator of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.

(1) I am able to speak more knowledgeably about my own experience, although hopefully the situation has changed in the four years since I was a seminarian. I entered seminary in 1970 without yet having been confronted with anything but support and encouragement for my calling. That is amazing, in retrospect, because I know now that

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the experience of so many other women planning for a theological education is so negative.

In terms of support during my seminary years, the answer would be one of good news and bad news. Almost without exception, I found lay people in my field-work churches to be accepting and supportive of me in a pastoral role, but more clergymen than not wary and even hostile. This has continued to be my experience since ordination. Most of us who were clergywomen-to-be did share frustrations related to seminary attitudes; but in many areas, the seminary was more open minded toward us than our various denominations. Although there were a few professors who were openly antagonistic toward the idea of women in ministry, I was grateful on the other hand for the equal treatment offered both women and men by a good many of the faculty. Perhaps my greatest disappointment at the time was with my own denomination, which provided us virtually no encouragement or support, and which in several instances actually served to discourage us.

(2) Although some clergywomen have been able in the last few years to attain professional status commensurate with their capabilities, by far the majority of ordained women known to me are still either unemployed, employed only part-time, employed outside the church, or employed in calls that neither meet their expectations nor make full use of their gifts. That may seem a negative evaluation, but from my perception it is a true one. I know of only three or four women who did not experience tremendous difficulty, over long periods of time, in finding calls. Many of those employed in parishes had little or no choice as to their call and subsequently are not as satisfied as they might have been with a broader field from which to choose. Presently, I am fortunate to be a member of a judicatory in which clergywomen's talents are recognized and called upon equally with clergymen's; but I have also experienced the other side of the coin where women are treated as non-entities professionally, and that seems to be the more frequent experience among women pastors.

(3)From what I have observed of women's competency as pastors, I feel that the church cannot be other than a beneficiary from increasing numbers of women training for the parish. At least up to now, the particular pressures confronting women and the obstacles we have had to overcome in preparation for ministry have resulted in a noticeably higher level of self-awareness and professional skill among female clergy than, on the whole, among clergymen. It is a biblical truth that difficulty strengthens, and fire refines; and I think that has been underscored with women in ministry, in the experience of every denomination that ordains us. Whether those dynamics will change, when and if it becomes easier to be a clergywoman, remains to be seen. But present experience leads me to believe that there is an exciting future to be opened up to local churches and theological seminaries, and that this future will be given birth through the gifts and leadership of women.

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Elizabeth Achtemeier

Visiting Professor, Homiletics and Hermeneutics, Union Theological Seminary; Richmond, Va.

Over a period of some thirty years, I have come into contact with several hundred women in seminary training and out in the parish ministry. "Women in the ministry" is not a new phenomenon. The Congregationalists had women clergy already in the 1940's, as did the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Christianity and Crisis published an article on women in the church as early as 195 1. The movement of women into the pastorate only seems new, because it has gained publicity and numbers from the women's movement in general.

I have learned during three decades of contact with women clergy, more ever, that you cannot generalize about their status. Some of them, in some denominations, have had unstinting support from their seminaries and denominations and congregations, and are exercising significant pastoral ministries. Some have moved into important leadership positions within their conferences and synods. Others, in other denominations or other regions of the country, have completed their seminary educations-sometimes brilliantly-only to find their way totally blocked into local churches. Some could not be happier; some are bitter and pessimistic and thoroughly disillusioned. Some radical women's liberationists would have us believe that all women in the ministry are suffering under prejudice, but that is far from the truth. Some women have known nothing but encouragement for their ministries since the day they entered seminary. As with every other aspect of its life, the church's response to female clergy exhibits every shade and view. The church is never without grace, and it is never without sin, on this score or any other.

Perhaps two cautious generalizations can be made. First, those women clergy have received the most ready acceptance who have understood themselves, above all else, as servants of Jesus Christ and have forgotten themselves and their sexuality in the exercise of their servanthood-although even that is sometimes not enough to overcome the stereotype of "Southern womanhood" here in the South. But it remains broadly true that those women clergy who have "lost" their lives for Christ's sake and the gospel's, have truly "found" them.

Second, those women have exercised the most fruitful ministries who have found their source of freedom in the freedom with which Christ has set us free, and not in the more secular ideologies of the women's movement. It is very difficult to combine much of the self-seeking of the secular liberationists with the demands of the Christian gospel, and those women have found themselves most liberated who have understood themselves as slaves of Jesus Christ, and have thus concentrated on their responsibilities rather than on their rights.

Barring any large-scale distortion of their ministries, however, I think it inevitable that women will be given full acceptance in all branches of the Christian church-it is very difficult to resist the

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Spirit, once he starts to change our situation. The process may take decades in some denominations and some regions, but it has begun, and God will not be denied the victory. He will build up the full body of his church, to the glory of his name, and he will overcome every foe and every obstacle to the manifestation of his glory. So, "if God be for us, who can be against us?" With that faith, the church will live.

Jean Anne Swope

Women's Program, United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.

(1)In my own denomination, a recent survey shows that the majority of church women are in favor of women clergy. But the experience of many candidates indicates that women serving on search or pulpit committees are not vocal in their support of women seeking pastorates and are even sometimes outspokenly hostile. Of the current group of 315 ordained clergywomen, only 18 percent are now full pastors of churches, and 41 percent are serving in other than pastoral categories. Yet it is predicted that in two years the number of ordained women will double.

(2) When women are recognized as persons in their own right, fully participating in the church and in the community, and when they are allowed to be pastors who minister to others, as well as receive ministry from others, there is much personal satisfaction and fulfillment. As an ordained person, I can testify from my own experience. But when women carry a chip on their shoulder, seek to create a confrontation, or are relegated to minor staff positions, then there is frustration and disenchantment.

(3)Church congregations must begin to recognize a variety of role models for ministry. Stereotypes about women as mothers, homemakers, sex objects, weak and emotionally unstable parasites must be questioned as vigorously as possible. But beyond that, church people must be educated that male white is not necessarily right. Women in the ministry can bring a new concern among congregations for children, singles, the divorced, single parents, grandparents, and the homosexual-just to mention a few members of the human family not now notably ministered unto by many men.

With this in mind, it is conceivable that women in the pastorate will have a humanizing influence on theology itself, so that it can reflect a new common experience of the whole person, body and spirit, male and female. And even our language could become more inclusive, with fewer pulpit illustrations from sports, business, management, and competitive goals.

A special responsibility for theological education will be to devise courses and practicums to help seminarians, both men and women, to deal with the personal problems of multiple-staff ministries.

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Collegiality at every level of church polity will become an increasingly acute matter as men and women learn how to work together.

The fact is that women are being called by God to ministry; the question is whether churches will respond with support, acceptance, and imagination.

Daphne W.P. Hawkes

Assistant Rector, Trinity Episcopal Church, Princeton, N.J.

(1) Yes, I think there is disappointment among women seminary graduates. Their expectations do not prepare them for the shock when they leave the educational environment to enter the religious working force. In my own denomination (Episcopal), support of any kind for women is such a recent occurrence that the situation may seem for many to be very positive. On the other hand, because of the increasing opposition of the separatist movements within the Episcopal Church, bishops and members of standing committees (who must act on candidates for ordination) have become more reluctant at this time to approve women. The general effect of this, it appears to me, is like a gate which was opened wide enough to admit a few women (60 in the United States) to the priesthood, and then, suddenly, it was securely bolted again. The fear, apparently, is that there are floods of females waiting to pour through the gate.

Perhaps the fear is justified. There are certainly many more women studying at Episcopal and other seminaries, and presumably there they receive some encouragement regarding the possibility of becoming the ministers they are training to be.

Those who justify limiting the number of women being accepted at this time do so on the grounds that women who enter the priesthood now must be unusually well qualified since they are the pioneers. In our diocese, there is a requirement that a woman have some other job before being ordained. Sensible as this may be, this is not a requirement for the ordination of a male priest.

Assuming that the control of the number of women being accepted is not aimed at countermanding the stated consensus of the church to ordain women priests, it still seems that there are two things to be said. (a) Even if women did flood the market, it would take many years before there would be enough qualified women to challenge the present ratio of Episcopal clergy, which is 60 women and 13,000 men. (b) The only way women will become accepted as pastors in the church is for them to be pastors in the church, and to stand or fall on real performance. Limiting the number of women only serves to defeat, or at best delay, the possibility that this will happen and that women clergy will no longer be oddities. This stance seems typical of the ambivalent stand the church hierarchy has taken on the issue. The "experimental" nature of allowing a few women to be priests mitigates against success

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at the outset. What a similarity to the modern marriage that is sealed with the commitment: "If it works out, okay; if not, we'll get a divorce"!

The churches and denominations are encouraging women to go to seminary, but all too frequently they do not follow through when the women are graduated. Because of this, there is bound to be a great deal of frustration caused by the mixed messages women are receiving.

(2)Some ordained women in the Episcopal Church, as of course in other denominations, have not been able to find parish work. They serve in hospitals, counseling agencies, schools, colleges, seminaries, and in many other kinds of situations. There are presently only two women rectors (in charge of parishes) in the country. I am not sure how this would compare with other denominations, but I understand that very few women anywhere are in full charge of a church or of a church staff. I happen to be an assistant rector on a three-person staff, and I serve at somewhat less than full time.

My own vocational satisfaction is very high, and from conversations with other women I have found this to be true generally. The problems that arise for many of us is in working out schedules that allow us to feel satisfied in our family life as well as in our priesthood. This is a balance that men also have to face, but I think it has new dimensions for the working mother because of the pressures and expectations that are subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, exerted by the culture upon a mother. This is an individual problem, but yet a much broader one, and in the struggle to work it out, I have found that the struggle itself informs my ministry-to both men and women.

Another impression concerning my ministry and that of other women I know is that it is often other clergy who have trouble affirming our ministry rather than our parishioners. The sacramental and pastoral aspects seem to be readily accepted and welcomed by parishioners, while there may be some difficulty accepting women in the role of a "competent" church leader, and, indeed, I think it is often difficult for women themselves to feel competent.

As far as professional status, I think this is probably a very individual thing, depending on whom one is working with, in what parish, and in what kind of context with colleagues. I have been very fortunate and have felt supported a great deal of the time. But many women are atrociously underpaid, and many feel they are not taken seriously. At times, it is difficult not to feel like a token, a symbol that rounds out a parish staff and makes it appear progressive. Ordained women have spoken to me about feeling "interchangeable" in the sense that one woman is like any other woman, and so an ordained woman on a church staff could easily be replaced by another.

(3)In my opinion, there is no question that there are increasing numbers of women already training for the pastorate, and the effects are even now beginning to be felt. One effect is that in the local church I think women will take themselves and their own lives more seriously. Many are beginning to examine the places where their understanding

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of Christianity and their relationship to Jesus Christ connect (or don't connect) with their understanding of themselves as female human beings.

Women are coming out of the parish kitchen, reading the Scriptures in services, assisting at communion, and making themselves heard. I find it very exciting, and some surely find it distressing, but everyone finds that things are changing.

As far as theological education is concerned, perhaps we will see new attempts made to explore what it means to be a human being who is a creature of God, whether male or female. Theologies of sexuality, pastoral care, authority, and marriage all seem to me to be areas that may be enriched by the insights gained through having women in the ministry.

Some in the Episcopal Church have argued that the ordination of women would harm and delay ecumenical relations, especially with the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Churches. The anglican tradition has a long and valued association with these two churches, and neither ordains women. But I have myself recently appeared at various Newman Club forums with Roman Catholic priests and other Catholics all of whom felt greatly encouraged and heartened by the Episcopal Church's acceptance of women, and I have also worked with, and been affirmed and encouraged by, Jewish rabbis. I will be blessing an interfaith marriage this month with a Roman Catholic priest. We are hoping to concelebrate the eucharist as part of the service. Another woman priest known to me has been chosen as president of her local ministerial association, composed of several denominations, and she is the only ordained woman.

What I am saying, I suppose, is that it will take women actually working as pastors for others to accept them as pastors, and I think this is true on ecumenical levels as well.