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Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of articles on
women in The United Methodist Church in celebration of Women’s History
Month during March.
A UMNS Report
By Barbara Dunlap-Berg*
1:30 P.M. EST March 9, 2010
The Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers served as the first secretary of the
Commission on the Status and Role of Women. A UMNS photo by John Fulton.
View in Photo Gallery
The year was 1972.
Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ran for President, but in the
end, Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern. Antiwar
demonstrators—100,000 strong—took to the streets to protest U.S.
involvement in Vietnam.
A gallon of gas cost 55 cents, a new house less than $30,000. “The
Godfather” was the top-grossing movie and Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman”
took 14th place on the Billboard charts.
Into this world was born the United Methodist Commission on the
Status and Role of Women. Created by the denomination’s top legislative
body four years earlier as a study commission, it eventually became a
full-fledged standing commission.
Taking the helm at the beginning as president and secretary were a
laywoman—Barbara Ricks Thompson—and a clergywoman—Jeanne Audrey Powers.
“Even before we had a formal agency, we had a movement of lay and
clergy women,” Powers said.
In 1972, the pair began laying the groundwork for the commission,
which gained permanent status four years later. “Barbara and I were the
first two permanent officers—and the only officers. We were starting
from scratch,” Powers said.
Unconventional tone
An unconventional tone was set at the first meeting. “Youth,
barefooted and with stringy hair, sat on the floor,” Powers said. “The
bishop, who was leading the meeting, was very formal. He called the
group together. There were youth and laywomen who had never served on
any agency.
Leading the fledgling Commission on the Status and Role of Women was
President Barbara Ricks Thompson. A UMNS file photo courtesy of The
Commission on Archives and History.
View in Photo Gallery
“We elected a layperson as head, which was a big deal. We had a
desire to have a different kind of life than we did before.”
One of the first tasks for Thompson and Powers was to hire a general
secretary – the top executive post. About 70 people applied for the
job. “Nan Self showed up with Judy Elmer (as co-applicants),” Powers
said. “We hired them, and each received half the salary.”
People were encouraged to speak freely during meetings of the
Commission on the Status and Role of Women, which eventually embraced a
consensus style of decision-making over parliamentary procedure.
“Consensus didn’t start intentionally,” Powers explained. “It was
simply Barbara’s style of leadership. She stepped back and listened
carefully” and paraphrased people’s comments to make sure she understood
correctly. “She was able to pull an (amicable) agreement out of the
group. No one felt they had won or lost.”
When commission representatives were invited to a meeting of the
United Methodist Council of Bishops, they paid just as much attention to
the bishops' wives, spending an afternoon learning more about what it
was like to be an episcopal spouse. Several of the women had
professional careers.
“We were taking seriously the wives—not just (expecting them)
to trail behind their husbands” she said.
Electing a female bishop
From the start, the commission pushed for the election of women
bishops, but its members weren’t quite sure how to make that happen.
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women gathered for a
group photo during a 1983 meeting. A UMNS file photo courtesy of The
Commission on Archives and History.
View in Photo Gallery
In 1972, the denomination’s Northeastern Jurisdiction endorsed
Powers for the episcopacy, but she withdrew, hoping that her supporters
would elect someone with the same convictions.
“I might have been well-known,” she said, “but there were a lot of
other qualified, competent women.”
When the Rev. Marjorie Swank Matthews, who had worked with the
Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, was
elected as United Methodism’s first female bishop in 1980, the church
“was hungry” for change, Powers said.
Four years later, the Rev. Leontine T.C. Kelly, an African American,
became the second female United Methodist bishop. Today, the
denomination has 16 active and eight retired female bishops.
Powers went on to become—among other things—an executive with the
United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns. Thompson eventually led the denomination’s Commission on
Religion and Race.
Today, the Commission on the Status and Role of Women retains much
of the passion of the early days as it strives “to challenge The United
Methodist Church at all levels to work for full and equal participation
of women in the total life of the denomination.”
*Dunlap-Berg is internal content editor for United Methodist
Communications.
News media contact: Barbara Dunlap-Berg, Nashville, Tenn., (615)
742-5489 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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