Clergywomen’s event will celebrate milestone, address challenges
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The Rev. HiRho Park |
Dec. 16, 2005
A UMNS Report
By Vicki Brown*
When 1,500 clergywomen
gather in Chicago for the 2006 International United Methodist
Clergywomen’s Consultation next summer, they will reach forward to a new
generation, even as they celebrate the historic 50th anniversary of
full clergy rights for women.
The Rev. HiRho Park,
coordinator of the Aug. 13-17 meeting, which is sponsored by the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, says the gathering
provides an opportunity to address barriers that remain for women in
ministry. The final plenary session will be devoted to considering the
future of clergywomen in the United Methodist Church.
“The gender gap between
achievement of male and female clergy persists in spite of the
increasing number of women coming into the ministry,” says Park,
director of Continuing Formation for Ministry at the board. “Clergywomen
are still struggling because of lower salaries and resistance to
accepting female pastors at the local churches level.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose
The Rev. HiRho Park is the first Korean American to head the church's clergywomen's consultation.
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| The
Rev. HiRho Park blesses communion elements at Salem United Methodist
Church in Hebbville, Md., in this 2001 file photograph. Park, a staff
member of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry,
is coordinator of the 2006 International Clergywomen's Consultation, set
for Aug. 13-17. She is the first Korean-American consultation to have
that role. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #05-877. Accompanies UMNS
story #699. 12/16/05 |
“Many clergywomen are
still in a lower to mid-level placement, oftentimes on a token level.
Gender, race, education, family, mobility and politics of the church all
affect clergywomen’s ministries. Clergy — male and female — in
leadership positions must be advocates for women and racial-ethnic
ministers.”
Park hopes the
consultation will help develop strategies to strengthen and nurture the
next generation of women leaders. Those strategies could include
establishing a support system in each annual conference, encouraging
women to explore global leadership opportunities and developing seminary
curriculum that encourages greater diversity. In addition, she hopes
the conference can look at why ethnic minority clergywomen are less
likely to stay in local church ministry.
“It is a tragedy that the church is losing its rich diversity when these women leave local church ministry,” Park says.
Registration brochures
were mailed in November, and more clergywomen are expected at the 2006
consultation than at any of the previous seven gatherings. That is
partly because of interest in the 50th anniversary of the historic vote
at the 1956 General Conference in Minneapolis, which gave full clergy
rights to women. The anniversary will be observed at a banquet during
the meeting.
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The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino |
The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino
The
Rev. Jerome King Del Pino grew up in a Methodist parsonage with his
five brothers and sisters. As a child, he went to Central Jurisdiction
annual conferences gatherings. "We would leave on Mother's Day and be
gone for the whole week and return home after the bishop read the
appointments," he says. He is an elder in the New England Conference
and has served as an adjunct faculty member at many colleges and
universities. Del Pino is the top staff executive of the Board of Higher
Education and Ministry. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. |
The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, top staff
executive of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry, describes the
significance of observing the anniversary at the meeting.
“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,” Del Pino says. “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.”
Park agrees, saying the presence of clergywomen is the evidence of an egalitarian belief of the church.
“God calls all people
into ministry, especially to the ministry of reconciliation,” says Park,
the first Korean-American clergywoman to head up the consultation. “We
need to commemorate the contribution and sacrifice that women made to be
faithful to their dedication to ordained ministry.”
In addition to the
banquet and plenary session, workshops dealing with such issues as the
status of racial-ethnic clergywomen, how to mentor the next generation
of clergywomen, and bridging the gap between clergywomen and lay women
will be offered. Spirituality groups offered each morning will explore
such issues as spirituality on the go, intercessory prayer and living
the Sabbath.
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Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly |
Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly
Bishop
Leontine T. C. Kelly was the first African-American woman elected to
the episcopacy in the United Methodist Church. She finds meaning in the
Central Jurisdiction by recalling it as a time when her family's home in
Cincinnati hosted many Methodist leaders of historic significance. In
the Central Jurisdiction, blacks received training and skills in church
leadership that they would not have received anywhere else in society,
she says. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. |
Bishop Leontine T.C.
Kelly, the first African-American woman elected bishop, foresees an
ever-growing role for women clergy in the United Methodist Church.
“As I listen to the
young women bishops, we’ve got bright, able, well-trained and
clear-thinking women,” says Kelly, now retired. And those bishops are
likely to appoint more women to posts in “high-steepled” churches, the
large churches that have typically been a route to the episcopacy, she
adds.
Kelly credits the
changing face of ministry — about 9,500, or one in five United Methodist
clergy, are women — partly to the civil rights movement.
“I don’t think we’d
have seen the movement in race or color in ministry without the kind of
movement we had in civil rights,” she says. “And women were very much a
part of that, too.”
*Brown is an associate
editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
News media contact: Linda Green or Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
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Resources
UM Clergywomen
50 Ways to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary (PDF)
Clergy Rights Poster Order Form (PDF)
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