Wesleyan women in ministry serve with passion, from pulpit and pew, as pastors, missionaries, teachers, historians, and counselors. Recently, The United Methodist Church celebrated its fiftieth year of ordaining women into ministry. Not only do women make up the majority of most congregations but also more and more women are serving in positions of authority and as congregation leaders. It is estimated that half of all persons in seminary are women, ten percent of all clergy in the United States are women, and three percent of congregation leaders are women.
Many Wesleyan women in ministry credit their alma mater for preparing them to pursue advanced degrees, formal training, and leadership roles within the church. Paige Getty ’93 claims that at Wesleyan she was nurtured just enough, and challenged even more, so that she could confidently recognize her gifts for ministry. Paige earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard University in 1999 and currently serves as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, Maryland.
When Ann Godwin Denham ’57 was growing up in the Methodist Church, women could not be ministers and were excluded from full ordination. Although she had never seen a woman in the formal role, Ann was inspired by tales of her great grandmother, who rode a mule with her two young daughters to speak at camp meetings on the frontiers of Tennessee. Ann married after her junior year at Wesleyan. Four years and three babies later, she returned to school and finished her degree. In 1963 Ann graduated from Northeastern while her husband earned a doctorate from Harvard.
After relocating to Tennessee, Ann, then in her late thirties, enrolled in divinity school at Vanderbilt University. She was well accepted though she was the only woman in the pastoral program and there were no women on the faculty. Ann was the only woman in her graduating class of 1971. She has been told she is the second woman in Tennessee to become an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church. In 1982, Ann surrendered her ordination and was confirmed as a Catholic. Today she volunteers at her parish, serves on committees, teaches scripture, organizes fundraisers, and leads retreats. She co-authored a book with Gert Wilkinson, Cloister of the Heart: Association of Contemplative Sisters.
Jennifer Stiles Williams ’93 currently serves as the minister of relational evangelism at St. Luke’s in Orlando, the largest United Methodist Church in the Florida conference. As her career advanced, she served twice in churches in which she was both the first woman and the youngest pastor. “The challenges for women in ministry are very different from those faced by our male colleagues,” Jennifer said. “From the pitch of your voice to being a voice of authority in issues of finances, from being pregnant in the pulpit to things as silly as rethinking the wireless microphone because you don’t have a belt.” Jennifer has helped grow the membership of several churches in small communities, and admitted that a bit of notoriety surrounds her because of the interest people have in the novelty of a woman pastor. She feels that in a church now where there are two main preaching voices, a male and a female, many members find themselves going to two services because they enjoy different perspectives on the same scripture.
According to Jennifer, there is something unique and distinctive about the gifts of women in ministry. She sees women leading with less hierarchy in a flat system of staff and laity. “This leadership is pivotal in postmodern emerging church ministries and is attractive to younger generations in our culture looking for a different definition of church. People are looking for a different, more accessible voice to help them experience a faith journey, and hearing a woman pastor may offer them an entry point into the church. And honestly,” she said, “the story of the birth of Jesus during a candle lit Christmas Eve service just has a different feel when it’s preached by a nine-month pregnant woman, weeks away from birthing her first son.”
While Jennifer was in college, both her mother and her sister became pastors and were ordained into The United Methodist Church. Jennifer had never actually known a woman pastor before her sister entered seminary in the 1980s, but claimed the pioneering efforts of Bishop Charlene Payne Kammerer ’70 encouraged her to explore in depth what it means to be a woman in leadership. Kammerer attended Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, where she earned both the Master of Christian Education and Master of Divinity and discovered her calling to preach, leading to her ordination as deacon in 1975 and elder in 1977 in the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church. In 1991, she received the Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
Kammerer is a Wesleyan woman of many “firsts,” including being the first woman ordained as a United Methodist minister in Florida; the first woman in the United States to be appointed as Minister to a University or Dean of a Chapel, serving in that capacity at Duke University in 1983-84; and the first woman to be a District Superintendent in Florida, where she served the Tallahassee District from 1987 until 1993. In 1996, she made history again when she became the first woman elected bishop in the nine-state Southeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. Bishop Kammerer served eight years in the Western North Carolina Conference and currently serves in the Virginia Conference, where she displays courage, conviction, and compassion as the spiritual leader for hundreds of thousands of United Methodists.
In May of 2007, Kammerer returned to Wesleyan to receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity and delivered a powerful commencement address. She said to the graduating seniors, “Over and over again, as the church has appointed me to serve, my very presence has opened doors that had long been closed to women. I cannot imagine not being in ministry, for it is my vocation. It is who I am. It has never been easy –– being a wife, minister, mother, and grandmother, in that order –– but it has been extraordinarily fulfilling. Part of my journey has been to mentor other women who themselves have felt called to ordained ministry, but didn’t know anyone who was living that life. I have known several Wesleyan women, who were in my congregations or in campus ministry where I served, who are now ordained and serving in many ways. This brings me great joy.”
The Reverend Harriette James Simmons ’64 is currently serving as interim rector of Christ Church, the oldest church in Macon. Established in 1825, this Episcopal church has a congregation of approximately seven hundred. Before Harriette decided to enter seminary, she married, had four children, sold real estate, and worked in a bank. She was baptized, confirmed, and married in the Episcopal Church. Throughout her adult life, she had always been involved with her church and, for years, her friends encouraged her to pursue seminary. In 1994, Harriette earned a Master of Divinity from Emory University. Within a year, she was serving as priest at Christ Church. In 1997, Wesleyan presented Reverend Simmons with the Alumnae Award for Distinguished Service to the Church. She moved to Augusta in 2002 and served as associate rector at St. Paul’s and rector at St. Augustine’s before returning to Macon in 2008. Harriette feels that God sent her to Christ Church to accomplish several important goals: increase attendance, re-engage inactive members, re-claim former members, and make sure everyone is happy.
Like Harriette, many Wesleyan women in ministry have serious goals to grow membership and manage large budgets. When Reverend Jenny Jackson-Adams ‘62 entered the field of ministry, she followed the footsteps of her father, grandfather, and great grandfather who were all Methodist ministers. She is well respected for her leadership and vision, and earned recognition from former President Jimmy Carter who praised her ministry in a chapter of his book, Living Faith (Random House,1996). Currently, she is the senior pastor of Perry United Methodist Church, a fast growing church with approximately 1,400 members. Prior to entering the field, Jenny taught history and anthropology and worked in radio and television advertising and broadcasting. In 1989, Reverend Jackson-Adams served as pastor of Morningside UMC in Americus, Georgia. Under her leadership, membership increased 300% and the operating budget tripled.
Women clergy like Jennifer A. Johnson ’92 successfully balance career ambitions with family responsibilities. In 2007, Jennifer was named associate pastor of children’s and family ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Ashland, Mississippi. Although Jennifer served as pastor of two churches in Mississippi prior to moving to Ashland, she considers her current role as associate pastor to be “her dream job” because it allows her to concentrate on her particular mission of working with young adults.
When Judy Johnson Whitwer ’59 attended seminary, women were expected to go into mission work or Christian education, and that’s what she did. She served as director of Christian education at First Congregational Church in Norwood, Massachusetts, before she married her husband, Reverend Ken Whitwer. “In the 70s women were becoming more accepted in ministry,” she said. “Women have been in ministry in our denomination since the 1860s, so the IDEA of ordained women was not new but there weren’t many women serving.” Judy was encouraged by her husband and was ordained in 1970 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Judy is retired now but, because she believes no one ever actually retires from ministry, she still serves in several capacities as a volunteer.
Ordained or not, paid or not, many Wesleyan women claim successful careers in ministry and have embraced leadership roles that advance Christian education. According to Marynell Sampley Waite ’40, one of the reasons for the establishment of Wesleyan College was to develop church leaders as teachers and missionaries. As the historian of the South Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church, Marynell dedicated nearly thirty years to the preservation and celebration of Methodist history. In 1974, she became the first woman (as well as the first lay person) to chair the Conference Commission on Archives and History. As a member of the commission, Marynell worked to develop the historical center and library that became the foundation of the Methodist Museum.
During the 1960s and 1970s, when the traditional roles of women in the church were being redefined, Wesleyan Pioneer Courtney Knight Gaines ’51 helped lead the transition. She was appointed to the Conference Board of Missions and later to the Conference Board on Ecumenical Affairs, positions that were previously unavailable to women. Throughout her years of service to the church, Courtney has inspired countless others. Virginia Harris Howard ’45 also has served The United Methodist Church in many capacities, lending support to children and providing assistance to senior citizens. Friends affectionately refer to her as “the bag lady,” recognizing her efforts to raise money for large-print devotionals for housebound seniors. Church members donate aluminum cans to the project and Virginia hauls them home in bags. She pulls off the tabs, crushes and cleans the cans, and packages them to be sold to recycling centers.
As a newlywed, Angela Wilkerson O’Kelley ’43 and her husband helped found Belvedere United Methodist Church in Decatur, Georgia. In 1960, she helped found the Belvedere pre-school and, for fourteen years, served as its director. This was just the beginning of Angela’s life-long service in major roles as a pastor’s wife. Anne Carlton Blanchard ’47 spent twenty years as a math teacher, but she has spent fifty-five years as a dedicated and largely unpaid worker in the churches served by her late husband, Methodist Minister Richard Blanchard. From 1961 to 1974, Anne authored dozens of articles for Roundtable, Workers with Youth, and New Creation, all nationally circulated publications. Her work has appeared in thirty-five different books and magazines and consists of worship materials, articles on recreation, plays, and study books. One of Anne’s dramatic works, The Vineyard, has been produced for network television.
Not all women in ministry are called to serve in a traditional church setting. In Nashville in 1984, Lucy Neeley Adams ‘56 began telling the story behind hymns for a radio program she created, The Story Behind The Song, that aired on Christian radio stations throughout Tennessee. Later she wrote articles for the local newspaper and, in 2000, published 52 Hymn Story Devotions through Abingdon Press. The volume includes fifty-two stories surrounded by scripture and prayer. Each devotion closes with the words of the hymn’s first verse. Today, Lucy lives with her husband, a retired Methodist preacher, in North Carolina and writes stories of religion and faith for the local newspaper, The Enterprise Mountaineer.
Award-winning Journalist Betty Thompson ’47 also used her writing to minister, serving the General Board of Global Ministries for thirty-five years. As the director of public relations, she served as the chief spokesperson for the global mission agency of The United Methodist Church. Betty began her career as the public relations director of her alma mater. As a Wesleyan undergraduate, she edited the College paper and was a correspondent for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Macon Telegraph. She is author of three books: Turning World, The Healing Fountain, and A Chance to Change.
Betty was the first woman to be appointed an editor-at-large of the distinguished weekly The Christian Century. In 1994, she received the Lipphard Award for distinguished service to religious journalism. Recognizing integrity and courage, the award is the highest honor given by the Associated Church Press. Also in 1994, The United Methodist Association of Christian Communication named Betty “Communicator of the Year.” In 1998, The World Association for Christian Communication designated her a life member. In 2001, she was inducted into the Methodist Communicators Hall of Fame. Generously, Betty has decided to donate her papers to Wesleyan.
Other Wesleyan women minister through their work with church-affiliated organizations or they serve as disciples by infusing Christian principles into other careers. Kiera Sheedy Camron ’98 served as the executive director at Open Door Women’s Clinic in Tallahassee where women with unplanned pregnancies go for help and advice. As a Dominican Sister of Hawthorne and the home administrator at Rosary Hill in Hawthorne, New York, Sister Mary Joseph (Ruth Powers ’75) has given her life to God and cared for hundreds of terminally ill cancer patients. Ruth’s vocation is not a career but a way of life motivated by intense love of God. Fann Dewar Greer ’66 is a pastoral psychologist with Tidewater Pastoral Counseling Services in Norfolk, Virginia. Organized in 1974, the counseling practice serves more than 1,500 clients annually in eight centers. The staff are ordained or licensed clergy representing a wide variety of denominations who have specialized training and certification through the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.
For many other Wesleyan women in ministry, the call to service requires world travel and great sacrifice. Sally Johnson Jackson ’75 has been a missionary in Guatemala for twenty-two years, raising her children in this work as well. Sally’s daughter, Tamalyn Jackson Guiterrez ’98, serves as director of a major human development project for the poor in Guatemala. Another Wesleyanne, Eloise Terrell Gray ’80, took her fifth trip to Kenya in August. Her ministry, Touching the Heart of God, works with underprivileged children providing food and education.
Christine Morana ’06, along with ninety-nine other young adults, is serving NET (National Evangelization Teams) Ministries. This year, she will spend nine months traveling across the country and holding retreats for nearly 8,500 teens in grades six through twelve. NET’s goal is to challenge young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the church. “Ultimately, we’ll be touching lives one-on-one with the Gospel message,” said Morana. “We’ll just start igniting the fire in them.” Morana has been preparing for this work her entire life, and claims to be fulfilling the role that she has been called –– in heart, mind, body, and soul –– to perform. |
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