Clergywomen celebrate advances, reflect on call

By Linda Green*

CHICAGO (UMNS) - A drum introit by Korean clergywomen and a rhythmic crescendo of "marching in the light of God" called the 2006 International Clergywomen's Consultation to order.

More than 1,500 United Methodist clergywomen from around the globe arrived in Chicago Aug. 13 dancing to and singing "We Are Marching." The women are here through Aug. 17 to celebrate the advancements made in the 50 years since women were granted the same clergy rights as men in the denomination.

Under the theme "The Spirit of God Is Upon Us: Celebrating Our Courageous Past-Claiming Our Bold Future," the clergywomen are engaging in theological reflection and in opportunities for nurture and empowerment.

In 1956 - the year the General Conference granted clergywomen with the same rights as men - 27 women were accepted on trial for full clergy rights in their annual (regional) conferences.
Today, the denomination's 44,091 clergy members include 9,749 United Methodist clergywomen - about one in five, or 22.1 percent.

The August consultation "is an affirmation of women's leadership in a religious arena that tends to be more male dominated," according to the Rev. HiRho Park, event coordinator and director of continuing formation for ministry at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

In the opening sermon, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of Jackson, Miss., focused on Zora Neal Hurston's "Their Eyes Are Watching God," speaking of horizons where the 1,500 participants came from - the North, the South, the East and the West.

She invited the women to look within themselves "to see, to renew that call again, to hear that voice of God speaking to us again."

Isaiah 61:1-4 speaks of the mantle of praise, and Ward referred to those foremothers who preached in various places before the General Conference vote to grant full rights. "Can't you feel their mantle on your shoulders?" she asked.

"Tonight as we gather, we look back at the horizon behind; all those who have come before us, upon whose shoulders we stand; those who have encouraged us, those who have called us forth; those who have gone before; those who have raced onward. We give thanks for each and every one of them that we name in our hearts, our spirits and our minds. We give thanks for one another on the journey."

Ward told the story of a ministry candidate in the Mississippi Conference who spoke of her call. The candidate, who was "not raised in the church all that much" started attending church services and said she "began to feel God beckoning me forward and it made my heart hurt."

Thinking that she was sick, she went to doctors who could not find anything wrong with her heart. When the candidate told her mother what was happening to her, her mother said "it is just God trying to soften up the hard places."

Clergywomen, Ward pointed out, bear memories and wounds of those hurt places - "those places where we weren't welcome, those places where we were not encouraged."

The consultation "is jubilee week" for all of that, she said.

Turning world 'upside-right'
During a Bible study session, the Rev. Candice Lewis of the Florida Annual Conference, spoke of the ashes that remain after something has burned. After disasters, death, destruction, unmet dreams, ashes remain, she said.

Three things can be done with ashes, she added. They can be worn so that others can see the person's pain; they can be wallowed in, in misery; or they can be worshipped by being placed in an urn and constantly looked at.

But God provides another option, Lewis said. "Give your ashes to God, and God will give you garland and beauty for your ashes."

The Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, was among the denominational agency leaders who brought greetings. She pointed out that women have an extraordinary call and referred to Sojourner Truth, who said if the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, "together women ought be able to turn the world upside-right again."

A welcoming banquet
Also providing greetings was the Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, top executive of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry. He recalled being in the audience as a little boy when the 1956 vote granting women full rights was taken and he sounded a clarion call for the church today.

The crisis facing the church is not a crisis of story or belief, but is with the delivery system for the story, according to Del Pino.

"As a people, we church folk have failed to see that the quality of Christian life is the primary calling of communication to the world," he said. The problems driving people to self-help groups are covered by Christianity in its proclamation, its teaching and in its life, he added.

He referred to the membership debates occurring in the church today, and he received a standing ovation when he called for "full inclusion of all God's children at the table."

The church, Del Pino said, "has no right, whatsoever, to do anything other than to invite," which is a not a political but theological imperative. If the church focuses on "being a welcome banquet," he declared, the divisiveness that exists today will vanish.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.