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Ethnic minority clergywomen face challenges Denise Johnson Stovall, Apr 13, 2006
A 50th anniversary is a time for celebration, and United Methodists around the world are doing just that this year as they mark the jubilee of full clergy rights for women.
Such a milestone is also a cause for reflection, however. While women -- lay and clergy alike -- have moved from marginal support roles in the church to positions of leadership, they still find themselves confronting limited opportunities and problems being accepted.
"Never in my imagination did I expect to experience, in my active ministry, the sheer numbers of ordained women and variety of ways in which they have been able to respond to their call through ministry in our church," said Bishop Susan M. Morrison of the church's Albany (N.Y.) Area.
In particular, she said, she is concerned about opportunities for women of color to serve.
"Their options have been far more limited," Bishop Morrison said. The United Methodist Church has at least 10,000 clergywomen, including elders, deacons, local pastors and retirees, according to denominational statistics.
Of those, 800 to 1,000 are ethnic minority clergywomen. Historically, the largest number has been African American. Other ethnic groups include Korean American, Hispanic, Native American, Japanese American, Chinese American and Pacific Islander.
Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of the church's Phoenix Area says women of color sometimes experience double discrimination in ministry.
"What I have always found curious is that so often the very persons who have most touched our lives through their faith witness are the very same persons who most oppose and are troubled by our call and desire to be faithful," she said. "There is great irony in this. Racism and sexism are so embedded in the world that even in their present subtle and sophisticated forms they are viewed as the normal state of life.
"Such sins -- for racism and sexism are sins in that they counter God's creative work of making us diverse in color and culture and gender -- need to be constantly named for what they are and overcome," she said.
The Rev. HiRho Park says the success of today's clergywomen depends on those who have gone before her.
"Making progress in women's ministry is like running the relay," said Dr. Park, a staff executive at the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. "Each person should receive the baton and run with her best so that when the next one carries it, she will run with the wind of spirit of all women who ran before her."
Year of jubilee
"Women have always been preachers in our churches since the beginning," said the Rev. Marion Jackson, pastor of First United Methodist Church, Monclair, N.J.
Even before the merger of the denominations that became the United Methodist Church in 1968 -- the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches -- "all were ordaining women," Dr. Jackson said.
Women were given full clergy rights in the Methodist Church in 1956, and the 2004 General Conference passed a resolution that all annual conferences should observe this anniversary.
"All clergywomen within the United Methodist Church should celebrate," said Dr. Jackson, a former staff member of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
"We can celebrate that women have been appointed to the highest positions of the church," Dr. Jackson said. "(But) unfortunately, women are still a minority among lead pastors of large churches (1,000 or more in worship attendance). The struggles in the future are the struggles of the past."
Before they became a presence in the clergy, women were active in lay ministries throughout Methodism's history.
"Women took seriously their call to social-justice ministry and stood together in opposition to lynching, segregation and racism within church and society," said Jan Love, top executive of the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries.
As head of the Women's Division, she is responsible for administering United Methodist Women, a large-membership organization with chapters in churches around the world.
Women began by sending out missionaries to India to meet the needs of women and children there, Dr. Love said. Laywomen also recognized needs in their communities at home, organizing missionary societies, orphanages, schools, hospitals and community centers.
Fostering conversation
M. Garlinda Burton, top executive of the United Methodist General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, is a witness to the power of being mentored by strong Methodist women. A native of North Carolina, Ms. Burton recalls the dedicated lay service of her mother, Margaret Burton.
Ms. Burton said she was grateful to United Methodist women "who have raised the bar and opened our eyes to a world of multinational, multiracial and multicultural lay voices."
"I still hear people say, 'I don't want a woman pastor or bishop or superintendent or treasurer.' We need to continue to say -- in love -- that sexist and racist prohibitions are not acceptable."
Serving as bishops
While the church has an increasing number of Caucasian and African-American women serving as bishops, other cultural groups are not as well represented, if at all.
"The Rev. Ha-Kyung Cho Kim, a Korean-American clergywoman, was an episcopal candidate for the Northeastern Jurisdiction" in 2004, Dr. Park said. "This was the first time that a woman (of Korean heritage) ran for the office in the jurisdiction's history. After she made the withdrawal speech, she turned to the Korean-American clergywomen who were there to support her and said, 'I did this for you younger generations. . . . somebody had to open the door.'"
Added Dr. Park: "Maybe in the next quadrennium, somebody may come in through that door."
Denise Johnson Stovall is a Dallas free-lance writer. For more UMNS stories, see www.umc.org.
A 50th anniversary is a time for celebration, and United Methodists around the world are doing just that this year as they mark the jubilee of full clergy rights for women.
"Women have always been preachers in our churches since the beginning," said the Rev. Marion Jackson, pastor of First United Methodist Church, Monclair, N.J.
"Women took seriously their call to social-justice ministry and stood together in opposition to lynching, segregation and racism within church and society," said Jan Love, top executive of the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries.
M. Garlinda Burton, top executive of the United Methodist General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, is a witness to the power of being mentored by strong Methodist women. A native of North Carolina, Ms. Burton recalls the dedicated lay service of her mother, Margaret Burton. 
"The Rev. Ha-Kyung Cho Kim, a Korean-American clergywoman, was an episcopal candidate for the Northeastern Jurisdiction" in 2004, Dr. Park said. "This was the first time that a woman (of Korean heritage) ran for the office in the jurisdiction's history. After she made the withdrawal speech, she turned to the Korean-American clergywomen who were there to support her and said, 'I did this for you younger generations. . . . somebody had to open the door.'"
