Methodist Women Prepare for 50th Year Celebration of Full Clergy Rights
According to the coordinator of the 2006 International United Methodist Clergywomen’s Consultation, the gender gap still remains and clergywomen are still struggling for acceptance.
Next year, United Methodist women will be celebrating the 50th year since they first received rights as full clergy members of the church. However, according to the coordinator of the 2006 International United Methodist Clergywomen’s Consultation, the gender gap still remains and clergywomen are still struggling for acceptance.
"The gender gap between achievement of male and female clergy persists in spite of the increasing number of women coming into the ministry," said the Rev. HiRho Park, director of Continuing Formation for Ministry at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, according to the United Methodist News Service. "Clergywomen are still struggling because of lower salaries and resistance to accepting female pastors at the local churches level.”
In many denominations, including those who have ordained women leaders for decades, clergywomen face a stained-glass ceiling on opportunities and salary. In many instances, women struggle to move beyond the freshmen positions of associate or assistant pastor in medium or large sized churches despite years of hard work and dedication.
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"Many clergywomen are still in a lower to mid-level placement, oftentimes on a token level,” said Park. “Gender, race, education, family, mobility and politics of the church all affect clergywomen's ministries.”
This is why Park hopes next year’s consultation will become a springboard for strategies to strengthen and nurture the next generation of women leaders. Some strategies she has in mind include the establishment of a support system at each regional conference and setting up ways to educate women about the global leadership opportunities that are available to them.
Brochures for the Aug. 13-17 meeting were already mailed in November, and about 1,500 clergywomen are expected to travel to Chicago for the special observance.
"The United Methodist Church, and especially its predecessor body, the Methodist Church, will observe a defining moment in its quest to be 'fully church' when it celebrates the 50th anniversary of granting full clergy rights for women in set-apart ministry," said the Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, top staff executive of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry. "While the 1956 General Conference addressed a vexing social, political and justice issue by its action, the greater significance was, and is, that the full inclusion of women in the ordained leadership of the church affirmed the fullness of God's creation and God's expectation that the church model God's will for God's creation to the world."
There are currently about 9,500 United Methodist clergywomen, accounting for one fifth of all United Methodist ministers.
