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Women’s commission born in turbulent times

 
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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.

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.
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.
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.
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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