Decades after many denominations broke down gender barriers to ordain and hire women as pastors, most clergywomen still find themselves trapped by a stained-glass ceiling.
For example, a Detroit Free Press analysis has found that men still get virtually all the plum assignments in metro Detroit churches.
Consider:
None of the 18 Detroit-area United Methodist churches with more than 800 members has a female senior pastor, although Bishop Linda Lee was recently elected to head the denomination in Michigan. Nationwide, the denomination has 7,370 ordained women available to serve parishes–the most of any religious group in the United States.
Only three women are senior pastors of metro Detroit churches with more than 1,000 members: Rev. Lori Carey, hired this year at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor; Rev. Wilma Johnson, hired last year at New Prospect Baptist Church in Detroit; and Rev. Marianne Williamson, hired at the Church of Today in Warren in 1998.
That tiny number of clergywomen at the peak of their profession stands in stark contrast to the growing ranks of women coming out of seminaries. Since 1972, the first year they were counted, the number of women studying for masters of divinity degrees in the nation’s 206 seminaries has skyrocketed to more than 30 percent from 5 percent.
“Sexism is alive and well in America,” said Rev. Carol Johns, pastor of the Orchard United Methodist Church in Farmington Hills, Mich.
For example, the Catholic Church refuses to ordain women, although a Gallup Poll done in May found that 68 percent of American Catholics say they would like to see women priests. Pope John Paul II has strictly warned his followers not even to discuss the matter.
“We feel very frustrated when we can’t even put the issue on the table,” said Genevieve Chavez, national coordinator of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a group lobbying the Catholic Church to drop its ban.
In the Episcopal Church, which ordains women priests, controversy is boiling over the unprecedented decision by Anglican bishops in Africa and Asia to send two newly ordained traditionalist bishops to the United States.
The new bishops say they want to serve conservative Episcopal parishes, mostly in the South, that oppose their denomination’s acceptance of gay and women clergy. Most American Episcopal bishops consider their arrival an unfair intrusion into their turf, but the traditionalist bishops refuse to leave.
In June, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to condemn the denomination’s hundreds of women pastors and the pioneering parishes that ordained them. The decree was not binding on individual congregations that still might ordain women, but it was viewed as a setback for women who aspire to those positions.
“It concerns everyone when our sister ministers are knocked down a peg like that,” said Rev. Lisa Presley, pastor of the 175-member Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield, Mich.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, about 50 male Baptist pastors have broken with the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity, the city’s most prominent clergy forum. The schism was triggered by the council’s decision last year to break its gender barrier and invite Johnson from New Prospect to join the council.
“We’re not against women. I’m married to one of the sweetest women in the world,” said Rev. Robert Coverson of Second Chapel Hill Baptist Church in Detroit, a spokesman for the new, all-male Baptist Pastors Fellowship of Detroit and Vicinity.
“The problem is: We believe that we must do what the Bible says–and the Bible tells us that God does not give women authority over men,” Coverson said. “The book of Genesis says that God gave Adam authority and dominion and power, before God ever gave Eve to Adam. And, when God sets an order, he never changes it. As men of God, we must do what God has said, regardless of whatever trends may be popular.”
That sort of argument infuriates or amuses clergywomen.
“I always smile when I hear that Eve-was-just-an-afterthought argument,” Johns said.
“The Bible verse that really speaks to my heart on this is Galatians, Chapter 3, beginning with Verse 27,” said Johns, who recited: “`For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”‘
In churches such as the United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian, the stained-glass ceiling is reinforced in subtler ways.
“We don’t hear anyone blatantly make sexist comments anymore in our churches, because no one wants to be thought of as sexist today,” Johns said. “But it’s still a part of our culture that many people think of women as not capable or talented enough to handle the biggest jobs.”
She recalls the warnings she received from friends in 1996 when she took the job at Orchard. Their concern: As the first female senior pastor at the church, following a popular male pastor, many shaken parishioners might run for the exits.
Four years later, membership has remained stable and the church is attracting younger families.
“This fall, for the first time, we’ll have two kindergarten Sunday school classes and two pre-K classes. The joke at our church is: Don’t sit too close to your husband or you’ll wind up pregnant,” she said.
But fear about hiring a church’s first female pastor has frustrated the careers of many women.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., Carey said, “A lot of churches perceive hiring women as a risk, so they hire men.
“I graduated from seminary in 1984, but I had difficulty getting a first call to a church. I interviewed with many churches, and some of those interviews went very well. But, time and time again, I got the word back: `We were very impressed with your interview and we like you, but we’re afraid about how the rest of the congregation would react.”‘
Linda Duhn, who serves as a hiring consultant for Detroit area Episcopal congregations, said she has rarely heard church members voice opposition to women.
“But, even though they may not say anything, churches can put constraints on the process that exclude women,” Duhn said.
“The bigger churches may decide that they won’t accept anyone who isn’t already a rector of a big congregation–and that often eliminates women.”
For two decades, researchers at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut have studied the careers of clergywomen.
“And we’re still seeing the old stereotypes out there that say women can be great counselors and teachers, but they just don’t have the brains to manage money or be top administrators of big churches,” said Adair Lummis, one of the Hartford researchers. “In big churches, people are afraid that members will leave.
“In fact, we’ve researched this claim and it’s nonsense. A few families do leave when any new pastor is hired, but new families also come in.”
CLERGYWOMEN STILL HAVE FAR TO GO
U.S. churches have ordained women for 147 years–ever since Antoinette-Louisa Brown broke the gender barrier and was ordained a Congregational minister in Butler, N.Y., in 1853. By 1910, 685 women told the U.S. Census that they were clergy.
But the ranks of clergywomen didn’t grow dramatically until the 1970s.
Here are examples of how clergywomen are faring:
Episcopal Church: Nationally, 14 percent of the 14,200 priests are women. The average size of all parishes is 433, but the average size of parishes with women rectors is 93.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Nationally, 18 percent of 12,400 ministers are women.
Islam: The Muslim title, imam, refers to a person who leads group prayers and, in the United States, it refers to the head of a congregation. In August, Muslim leaders in Iran agreed that women may serve as imams for prayers attended exclusively by women.
Judaism: The Reform movement, which began ordaining women in 1972, has the most female rabbis: 19 percent of 1,700 rabbis nationwide. The Conservative, Reconstructionist and Humanistic movements also ordain women.
Presbyterian Church USA: 18 percent of the church’s 21,000 ministers are women.
Unitarian Universalist Association: Women have been ordained since 1863, and now half of the 1,400 ministers nationwide are women.
United Methodist Church: Nationally, 17 percent of 44,400 clergy are women.
–Knight Ridder Tribune.
