Thank You to My Sister Clergywomen Who Went Before

(Written December 5, 2016)

Today I went to the clergywomen's luncheon. I was told it might be cliquish. I've heard of young clergywomen being harassed and hazed by older clergywomen (the rationale being that because they had it so tough, they have to make it tough on us). But today's lunch wasn't like that. Older clergywomen wanted to know about me. They were interested in me. And, for the first time, I was grateful for the trail they blazed.

I think I'd always taken it for granted. Growing up in the 1980's and 1990's, of course women could be preachers, too. I'd never appreciated just how recent that was. The church we went to the longest (in the place we lived the longest, 1986-1993) had a female priest (I grew up in the Episcopal Church). So, I normalized it.

The Methodist Church granted full clergy rights to women in 1956. The first woman appointed District Superintendent was in 1967 and the first woman elected Bishop was in 1980.

Only in the first of my three appointments was I the first woman (and I was only the third pastor overall, and the first white - it was a Hispanic church). Now, the church I served as an associate pastor has never had a female senior pastor. And where I serve now, I'm the second woman at one church and the third woman at the other church. The stained glass ceiling was already broken. I'm serving under my second female Bishop (out of four Bishops total). Out of six District Superintendents, half have been women as well. Yet half of all Bishops are not female, nor have I seen a Cabinet that is half women.

I don't think I ever appreciated just how new female pastors are, or what it would have been like to go to seminary in the 1970's or 1980's. It's not that long ago. Thank you, sister clergywomen, for blazing the trail and going before.