Saturday, October 11, 1997

Methodists celebrate, ponder women's ordination

By HOLLY J. LEBOWITZ

c.1997 Religion News Service

BOSTON - Amid social movements seemingly intent on rolling back the gains of women and in light of a new study on clergywomen leaving the local parish ministry, the Historical Society of the United Methodist Church last week took stock of the denomination's history of women's ordination.

The meeting, held Oct. 3-5 at the Boston University School of Theology, marked the end of a year-long celebration of what would have been the 150th birthday of Anna Howard Shaw, the first woman ordained in the Methodist tradition. Historians, clergy, district superintendents and lay people attended the society's annual meeting.

Shaw, a graduate of Boston University's School of Theology who won ordination at age 33 in October 1880, was presented as a "pioneer," fighting tirelessly for her ordination and, later, women's suffrage, temperance and relief for the poor. Once ordained, she went on to earn a medical degree from Boston University in 1886, pursuing a pastoral and healing ministry.

"She sort of symbolized what a lot of other women felt," said C. Faith Richardson, who ended her term as president of the Historical Society at the meeting. Shaw, according to Richardson, was extraordinary not only for her beliefs, but also for her perseverance in achieving her goals.

Shaw's story was presented to the group Lee Carpenter, a member of the advisory board of the Anna Howard Shaw Center. Carpenter dressed in a period costume to deliver a narrative history of Shaw's life.

Carpenter recounted Shaw's rejection by the Methodist Episcopal Church despite the fact that she and another woman had earned the two highest scores on an ordination exam, and traced her subsequent move to the Methodist Protestant Church, where she argued her way to ordination.

Although Shaw may not have actually been the denomination's first ordained woman, Carpenter noted, she was the most prominent and celebrated because of her activism and pioneering spirit.

"The 'woman question' caused stormy sessions (at the denomination's meeting) with red-faced men waving their arms to attract the attention of the president who rapped for order in vain," said Carpenter, who is writing a biography of Shaw for young people. But, "Miss Shaw was more than a match for her adversaries."

Despite Shaw's singular victory, women did not win official ordination rights in the Methodist Church until 1956, when the General Conference added a provision permitting it to the Book of Discipline, the collection of rules governing Methodist life.

And it wasn't until 1964 that male pronouns for clergy were dropped from the Discipline, said the Rev. Barbara Troxell of Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

"We need to (continue to) be gentle critics of the church," she said.

The celebration of the historical Shaw came as studies painting an uneven portrait of the contemporary place of women clergy in the church are being discussed and debated.

Troxell, for example, pointed to a June 1997 study showing that while women held some positions of leadership in the church, none were lead pastors at so-called "big steeple" congregations of more than 3,000.

Only 12 percent of full elders (clergy), 15.8 percent of district superintendents (local jurisdictional leaders) and 18 percent of active bishops were women as of July 1, she reported.

Preliminary findings from a more comprehensive study, which will be made public Oct. 10, were also presented to the gathering.

Researched by the Shaw Center and funded by the Division of Ordained Ministry of the denomination's Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the four-year United Methodist Clergywomen Retention Study sought an explanation for why clergywomen left their local parishes at a 10 percent higher rate than their male counterparts between 1974 and 1983.

In interviews with 123 women, Shaw Center director Margaret S. Wiborg and the Rev. Beth Collier, the study's primary investigator, just 38 percent currently served local churches compared with 70 percent who said the local parish was their preferred placement.

"Women are leaving who would rather not leave," said Collier.

During 1994-95, the research team analyzed more than 1,300 exhaustive questionnaires from clergywomen nationwide. They found 82 percent wanted to be in a local church after being ordained.

Interviews revealed that women who were leaving local parishes were generally going to another type of ministry, such as a chaplaincy or governing board of the church.

After the full report - including analysis of the reasons for leaving local parish ministry - is presented in Nashville to the Division of Ordained Ministry, the researchers will hold focus groups to generate solid recommendations for how to implement the findings.

"The church is called to act now that we have some new information," said Lynn Scott, director of continuing education for ministry at the division.