"Breaking Through the Extra-Thick
Stained-Glass Ceiling:
African American Baptist Women in
Ministry"
Rev. Dr. Courtney Pace Lyons
Every spring there is a great revival in
[Philadelphia]. . . . The church is at least half full of preachers. For a few
years, I attended that revival desiring to find medicine for my own needy soul.
. . . The revivalist came out and thanked God for . . . the presence of all the
brother preachers; and, then invited all the brother preachers to stand.
Sitting in the pew, I was immediately confronted with a crisis of identity.
Which do I own, my call or my gender? Do I sit and deny this call, this claim
of God on my life decreed by God before I was formed in the womb? Do I sit and
now again, another time add to my own history of shame, for the years I tried
to do everything else but answer this call? Or do I stand and deny my gender? A
preacher I am, a brother I am not. I finally resolved the violent conflict by
standing. Because, when I stood I stood as I am. I stood in the total
authenticity of my being—black, preacher, Baptist, woman. For the same God who
made me a preacher is the same God who made me a woman. And I am convinced that
God was not confused on either count. —Rev.
Dr. Prathia Hall
Even
in the twenty-first century, African American women encounter racial, gender,
and economic discrimination. Once respected as spiritual leaders of African
tribes, American slavery made them into “work-oxen” and “brood-sows.”[1]
The suffering of African American women was compounded beyond segregation,
discrimination, and disenfranchisement because they were expected to protect
African American families and values from the effects of those injustices,
without resources and within the constraints of proprietary womanhood.[2]
African American women became mothers of the church and “builder[s] and
nurturer[s] of a race, a nation.”[3]
There
are nine historically African American denominations in the United States:
African Methodist Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ),
Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME), National Baptist Convention, USA,
Incorporated (NBC USA, Inc.), National Baptist Convention of America, Incorporated
(NBCA), Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), Church of God in Christ
(COGIC), National Missionary Baptist Convention (NMBC), and Full Gospel Baptist
Church Fellowship (FGBCF). All of these denominations decry racism as sin, yet most affirm patriarchy as biblical. The
AMEZ was the first to ordain a woman—Julia Foote in 1894. The AME and CME did not ordain women
until the 1940s. Frustrated by gender discrimination, many African American
Pentecostal and Spiritualist women formed new denominations, known as The
Sanctified Church. Though the multi-racial American Baptist Churches, USA (ABC-USA)
issued a statement on gender equality in 1965, most African American Baptists
continue to uphold patriarchal ecclesiology.
In
American society, African American women typically rank lower and earn less
than African American men and white women, have fewer opportunities for
educational or professional advancement, and expend significant personal
resources serving their families and churches. Ministry is no different.
African American Baptist women in ministry face tremendous obstacles to formal
ministry placement and recognition; African American church membership is at
least 75% female, yet women make less than 10% of church leadership and about 1%
of African American Baptist pastors.
This
article examines the state of African American Baptist women in ministry,
historically and currently. Three “herstories”—histories of women—introduce a
discussion of obstacles African American Baptist women in ministry face. The
article ends with suggestions for better-supporting African American Baptist
women in ministry. While there are more opportunities for African American
Baptist women than ever before, there is still much farther to go.
MAKING
A WAY OUT OF NO WAY
African
American Baptist women have creatively ministered in spite of tremendous
prejudice against them. They organized Women’s Auxiliaries, raised funds for church
and mission work, taught Sunday School, and educated their communities toward racial
uplift. Many African American heroines have been called “abolitionist,” “educator,”
or “speaker,” instead of “pastor” or “preacher.”[4]
For example, Harriet Tubman freed over 300 slaves through the Underground
Railroad, providing pastoral care and spiritual guidance. Sojourner Truth
addressed large audiences with scripture-based appeals for racial and gender
equality. Nannie Helen Burroughs co-organized and co-led the Women’s Auxiliary
to the NBCUSA, Inc., founded a school for African American women and girls, mobilized
Baptists for missions support, began a quarterly newsletter, and founded
Women’s Day as an annual worship service led by women and thus offered the
first (and often only) preaching opportunities for African American women.
As
African American women have pressed for formal recognition for their ministry,
a liberation theology of African American women has emerged. Womanism is a theological
response to racial, gender, and economic oppression and includes a commitment to
the survival, quality of life, and wholeness of all people, of all races, male
and female.[5]
Womanists emphasize positive hermeneutics concerning women of color rather than
the stereotypical: “‘sin-bringing Eve, ‘wilderness-whimpering Hagar,’
‘henpecking Jezebel,’ ‘whoring Gomer,’ ‘prostituting Mary-Magdalene,’ and
‘conspiring Sapphira.’”[6]
STATE
OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BAPTIST WOMEN IN MINISTRY
Mapping
the current state of African American Baptist clergywomen has been difficult.
Most African American denominations do not keep personnel statistics, and
Baptist denominations in general fall short in tracking church leadership by
race and gender. The data in tables below is drawn from a poll of Baptist
seminaries, secondary literature, and data tables from the Association of
Theological Schools (for students identifying as Baptist) and the ABC-USA.
Percent of Baptist
Pastors That Are African American Women
|
Denomination
|
Percent of African American Baptist Women Pastors
|
|
ABC-USA
|
1.7%
|
|
PNBC
|
<1%
|
|
NBCA
|
0%
|
|
NBC USA, Inc
|
<1%
|
|
NMBCA
|
No data
|
|
FGBA
|
No data
|
|
SBC
|
0%
|
|
CBF
|
<1%
|
|
AB
|
No data
|
African American
Baptist Female Seminarians (2012)[7]
|
Baptist Affiliation
|
School
|
Total
Students
|
% of Students who are African American
|
% of African American Students who are Females
(% of African American students /
% of total students)
|
% of African American Students who are Baptist
|
% of Students who are African American Baptist
Females
(% of African American Females,
% of African American Baptists,
% of Students)
|
|
CBF
|
Gardner Webb
|
214
|
43%
|
48% / 21%
|
76%
|
73% / 47% / 16%
|
|
McAfee
|
241
|
48%
|
60% / 29%
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
Campbell
|
171
|
20%
|
6% / 12%
|
53%
|
57% / 67% / 7%
|
|
|
Wake Forest
|
101
|
21%
|
62% / 13%
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
Central Baptist
|
200
|
26%
|
45% / 12%
|
61%
|
52% / 39% / 6%
|
|
|
Truett
|
356
|
12%
|
42% / 5%
|
-
|
72% / - / 4%
|
|
|
|
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
|
101
|
17%
|
54% / 9%
|
53%
|
44% / 44% / 4%
|
|
ABC-USA
|
Northern
|
370
|
15%
|
36% / 29%
|
64%
|
60% / 14% / 3%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other affiliation
|
Leland Baptist Center
|
74%
|
28%
|
33% / 9%
|
95%
|
85% / 30% / 8%
|
|
Samford
|
182
|
16%
|
27% / 4%
|
50%
|
63% / 33% / 3%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SBC
|
New Orleans
|
3430
|
6% of students
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
Southern
|
3364
|
3% of students
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
|
Baptist Studies
|
Lutheran Southern
|
145
|
14%
|
33%
|
17% / <1% / 14%
|
African American Female Seminarians (All
Christianity) 1973-2012[8]
|
Year
|
% of All Seminarians
|
% of African American
Seminarians
|
|
Mid-1970s
|
4.7%
|
5%
|
|
Mid-1980s
|
17%
|
20%
|
|
2004
|
6.8%
|
49.9%
|
|
2012
|
7.6%
|
49%
|
Consider
a few observations about this data. First, the number of African American women
receiving seminary education is increasing. Since the 1970s, African American
women have jumped from 5% to nearly 8% of all
seminarians and from 5% to 49% of all African
American seminarians. Since the 1970s, African American women have
increased their seminary enrollment by 1000%.
Second,
there is a strong disparity, however, between the percentage of African
American Baptist women seminarians and those actually serving in Baptist churches.
Averaging the enrollment of African American Baptist seminarians from the
author’s poll, 6.4% of Baptist seminary students are African American women, yet
African American women comprise barely 1% of Baptist ministers. Thus, even
though African American women represent one-tenth of all seminarians and more
than one-third of all African-American Baptist seminarians, African American
women pastor only 1% of Baptist churches.
A
third observation to consider is that while SBC seminaries average 4.5% in African
American female enrollment, non-SBC seminaries average 14%, nearly three times
as many. A fourth observation is that many African American women enrolled at
Baptist seminaries belong to other denominations.
Overall,
the lack of data on Baptist leadership by gender and race is astounding. The ABC-USA
is the only Baptist denomination that tracks information by race, gender, and
region. The SBC tracks over thirty ministry positions, but none by gender or
race. The Alliance of Baptists (AB) tracks gender, but not paralleled with
race. Other denominations tracked only the number of member churches, and some do
not even keep records at all.
Without information, false assumptions of a level
playing field and equal opportunity prevail. The playing field is certainly not
level! Even among Baptist groups that openly affirm women in ministry, the
majority of Baptist pastors are male. Women make a strong majority of Baptist membership,
both in white and African American churches, yet they comprise only a single
digit percentage of pastors. The AB leads the way with 31% female pastors in
2012, but they do not track information by race. The CBF has 5% female pastors in
2012, but also does not keep statistics by race. ABC-USA has 9.8% female
pastors as of 2011; 1.7% of ABC-USA pastors are African American females.[9]
The
nearly universal failure of Baptist denominations to maintain accurate records about
their pastors allows false assumptions of a level playing field to prevail and
marginalizes minorities like African American women. Baptist Women in Ministry
(BWIM) and American Baptist Women in Ministry (ABWIM) have done considerable
work to report the state of Baptist women ministers. Perhaps the work of BWIM,
ABWIM, and similar groups can influence denominations to better document and
celebrate their rich legacies of women’s pastoral leadership.
The
statistics that are available paint a grim picture, but African American women
make a way out of no way, as they always have. The following “herstories”
present the spiritual journeys of three African American Baptist women in
ministry who have overcome significant obstacles to obey God’s call to formal
pastoral leadership.
HERSTORIES
Prathia
Hall
Prathia
Hall learned social justice ministry from her father, her primary spiritual and
intellectual mentor. After graduating from Temple University, she worked with
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Southwest Georgia and Selma,
Alabama. Hall was often asked to speak at mass meetings because of her
oratorical prowess. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Hall as “the one platform
speaker I would prefer not to follow.”[10]
Hall
tried to escape her call to ministry for many years. She was ordained in 1977 and
earned seminary and doctoral degrees from Princeton. She was a top-ranked professor
at United Theological Seminary, where she directed a center for women in
ministry and African American studies. She became the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chair of Ethics at Boston University’s School of Theology. For twenty-five
years, she pastored Mt. Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, her father’s
church. She received numerous awards, including being named among the leading African
American preachers by Ebony in 1997. She
mentored over two hundred African American clergywomen.
A
highly-sought preacher, professor, and leader, Hall nevertheless experienced grievous
sexism. Many churches asked her to speak from the floor instead of the pulpit
or would only invite her to speak on “Women’s Day.” In spite of her exceptional
preaching, she never received offers for a more prestigious pulpit. As a
pioneering voice for the full equality of women in ministry, she bravely spoke
against gender injustice among African American Baptists.[11]
Sheila Sholes-Ross
Raised
in New Orleans, Sheila Sholes-Ross had always assumed God’s call was for her
husband. After years of his encouragement to consider God’s call for her, Sholes-Ross discerned her call to
preach in her forties. She was ordained by the ABC-USA four months after graduation
from Hood Theological Seminary. Many male seminary professors encouraged her
through her ordination process, and her husband has been her biggest supporter.
Yet, she yearned for a female ministry mentor. As a teenager, she knew of only
one woman seminarian and did not hear a woman preach until her thirties. She
identified African American Baptist women’s biggest obstacle as the lack of female
ministry role models and wished that seminaries provided better opportunities
for networking between seminarians and female ministry mentors.
Sholes-Ross has been rejected as pastor by
eighteen churches, she believes, due to African American ecclesial patriarchy
and the assumption of white churches that African American pastors cannot lead
liturgical worship. She plans to “continue seeking, along with mentoring other
clergy women who are struggling . . . supporting women in ministry across
cultures and denominations.” She co-founded Equity for Women in the Church
through the AB in 2011 as a multi-cultural, ecumenical advocacy organization
for clergywomen: equipping women in ministry, connecting African American clergywomen
with mentees, and empowering laywomen to advocate for women in senior pastoral
leadership. She also encourages female preachers to find their own preaching voices
instead of imitating male preachers.[12]
Billie Boyd-Cox
Billie
Boyd-Cox, from rural Alabama, grew up hearing that God did not call women “in
or near pulpits.” Boyd-Cox’s parents forbade her to visit a church where women
preached. As an adult, she moved to North Carolina and witnessed women in various
ministry capacities. Through her non-denominational church’s education program,
she recognized God’s call for both women and men and was ordained as a deacon. She
sensed God’s call in 1995, when she was in her thirties, but ignored this calling
until 1998. When she shared her calling with her father, who was a preacher, he
offered her books from his library and advised against church-planting. He
never invited her into his pulpit, but he did often hear her preach.
In
her twelfth year of ministry, currently pastors Macedonia Baptist Church in
Conyers, Georgia, Boyd-Cox is completing her theological education at McAfee
School of Theology in Atlanta. She self-identifies as a passionate preacher,
often drawing from the Old Testament concerning the healing and restoration of women:
“I believe sermons should be transformational and should be applied to life
like lotion to dry skin.” [13]
She deeply grieves never having a mentor’s guidance and support, male or female.
She also grieves the tragedy of chauvinism in the African American church and
its oppression of women. Boyd-Cox encourages established ministers to share their
pulpits with aspiring preachers and has mentored numerous clergy herself: “We
do not have to preach every conference or revival when we know others are
capable and could use the experience. We are our sister’s keeper, even in the
pulpit.”[14]
OBSTACLES
FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN BAPTIST WOMEN IN MINISTRY
While
there are many obstacles women in ministry face, three have been identified as the
most significant and particular to African American Baptist female ministers. First,
Baptists historically affirm local church autonomy. This freedom is a wonderful
aspect of Baptist life, but also prevents Baptist denominations from promoting the
ordination of women because local churches decide for themselves whom they will
ordain. When the AMEZ, AME, and CME churches began ordaining women in the 1890s
and 1940s, these denominations issued top-down statements enforcing women’s
ordination. Local churches may have resisted, but the denomination had the
final authority. Baptist life is not ordered this way. Even if a Baptist
denomination broke protocol to issue such a statement, support for women in
ministry must come from local churches
Second,
without accurate information about gender and race, false assumptions of a
level playing field silence the prophetic margins. Baptists do not keep
sufficient personnel data. With the wealth of technology designed for personnel
management, this kind of information could be easily acquired and maintained. BWIM
has established a website where clergywomen can “report” their ministry
placement. Baptist groups would do well to emulate, for example, the ABC-USA in
its impressive database of ministry personnel and BWIM in its prioritization of
gathering information.
Third,
African American women live with triple consciousness: race, gender, and class.
Bettye Collier-Thomas notes that this oppression-in-triplicate gives African
American women a powerful base for theology and proclamation.[15]
At the same time, this triple oppression often keeps them silent. Because of
slavery and racial prejudice, the African American church has been the center
of African American autonomy in American history, and consequently, the main
venue for African American male authority. Historically, African American women
have tolerated sexism for the sake of defeating racism. Racism “was the first
line of battle” and “neither they nor their families would be free until every
vestige of racism was removed.”[16]
Though
few have braved the social stigma of speaking against sexism in the African
American church, many African American clergywomen have subverted ecclesial
patriarchy creatively, preaching “by any means necessary,” doing ministry by
other titles, and imitating “masculine” preaching instead of celebrating their
own unique voices.[17] By
the mid-twentieth century, pressure for formal ministerial recognition
increased. As African American Methodist denominations (AMEZ, AME, and CME)
publicly supported women’s ordination, African American Baptists remained exclusively
male-led. Even the PNBC, established
in 1961 for social justice, remains
male-dominated in leadership.
Socio-economic
factors make preparation for ministry very difficult for African American women.
For most, ministry is a second or third career. Many African American
clergywomen pastor low-paid or unpaid churches, bivocationally.[18] Additionally,
African American clergywomen often pay steep personal costs. The divorce rate
for African American clergywomen is 23%, three times the male rate. The
singleness rate for African American clergywomen is 55%, more than double the
male rate.[19]
Teresa Fry Brown explains: “Yes, when women answer the call they typically
experience some disruption . . . our pruning process. God mercifully removes
that person or those persons from our lives who would otherwise eventually
impede our ministry.”[20]
Delores Carpenter echoes: “Most male-female relationships have cemented around
the female’s reinforcing the male in his career achievements. The fact that the
woman’s career development needs the same support is often missed. Females can
become emotionally depleted from the demands of both family and those who
depend upon her for ministry. Rarely are members of the congregation sensitive
to her role as a dual and triple caregiver.”[21]
As
African American Baptist women press for formal ministry recognition, they face
heavy resistance from many fronts. For this reason, many have changed
denominations. According to Carpenter, half of African American Baptist clergywomen
switch denominations, most commonly to Methodist and independent Pentecostal
churches.[22]
As minorities-in-triplicate, they must excel just to be considered for ministry
placement.[23]
Those placed have an experience akin to front-line combat soldiers, weathering
a spectrum of opposition, often with little or no hope for career mobility.
HOW
YOU CAN SUPPORT AFRICAN AMERICAN BAPTIST WOMEN IN MINISTRY
Many
of the expressed needs of African American Baptist women in ministry could be
easily met by their supporters being intentional to demonstrate support in word and deed.
Share
your pulpit! Show support publicly by inviting African
American women as guest preachers or planning special events which may help the
congregation be more receptive to women preaching. Each February, BWIM
celebrates Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Women Preaching, similar to the annual
African American Baptist tradition of Women’s Day. Since most laity have no
experience with women ministers, exposure to female preachers builds bridges, overcomes
barriers, and emphasizes shared commitments to the gospel. This also provides
an invaluable opportunity to aspiring ministers to develop their preaching.
Correct
misguided patriarchal hermeneutics. Marvin McMickle’s Deacons in Today’s Black Church (2010)
unashamedly defends women in ministry as biblical. He powerfully critiques
patriarchy in the African American church: “The primary reason for excluding
women is gender discrimination—something that can no more be supported or
defended through the use of scripture than the racial discrimination so long
directed against black people in the United States.”[24]
He relays his church’s transition to affirming women’s ordination via “the
Jackie Robinson Model,” finding a woman “whose public life and Christian
service in the church was so exemplary that the
only grounds upon which anyone could oppose her selection and ordination was
that she was a woman.”[25] The
very need for this tactic exposed the church’s sexism and the double standards
placed upon women. He opened the door for the full inclusion of women in his
church’s leadership. McMickle’s eschewing of deceitful power plays is the kind
of courageous, prophetic rhetoric needed to overcome oppression, double
standards, and closed doors. Those who believe African American women should be
included in church leadership must speak out against discrimination.
Equip
seminarians for real-world challenges. Seminaries today
need to have course offerings that equip African American Baptist women in
ministry for real-world challenges and that raise awareness of racial and
gender discrimination in the church. Courses addressing African American church
history and theology contextualize the historical background of gender
prejudice and oppressive hermeneutics and provide models of how other
denominations have moved toward inclusivity. Homiletics coursework could
encourage cultivation of students’ unique voices. The Interdenominational
Theological Center in Atlanta exemplifies such curriculum, offering extensive
coursework in African American religious history, womanism, and liberation
theologies.
Provide
mentors! Female and male ministers can provide
game-changing support for aspiring clergywomen. Ministry mentorships provide a
noncompetitive relationship for encouragement, constructive feedback, and
practical wisdom. BWIM’s Dear Addie program, named for Addie Davis (ordained
SBC, 1964), allows women in ministry to correspond with seasoned clergywomen
about ministry concerns. Other ecumenical organizations like The Young Clergy
Women’s Project (TYCWP), exclusively for ordained women under forty, host
annual conferences, publication opportunities, online resources, and peer-mentoring.
Teresa Fry Brown’s Can a Sistah Get a
Little Help? (2008) offers a written source for ministry mentorship, with
humorous and moving insights and practical advice—“Mother Wit and Sistah Sense”
– for being an African American woman minister.
Work
together. Multiple organizations promote women in
ministry such as Christians for Biblical Equality, BWIM, ABWIM, Equity for
Women in the Church, and TYCWP. By working together toward making education
more accessible and relevant, developing support networks, and speaking
prophetically against discrimination, slowly but surely, barriers to the pulpit
will be overcome. As they bridge gaps between denominations, races, genders, regions,
methods, theologies, and constituents, they can better collaborate to
accomplish their shared goals: affirming and supporting women in ministry.
[1]JoAnne Marie Terrell, Power in the Blood? The Cross in the African
American Experience (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998), 113-4; Delores Williams, Sisters
in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll: Orbis,
1993), 34-83.
[2]Katie Cannon, Black Womanist Ethics (Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1988, 40-67; Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Introducing
Womanist Theology (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002), 7-8; Marcia Riggs, Awake, Arise, and Act: A Womanist Call for
Black Liberation (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1994), 75.
[3]Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, If It Wasn’t for the Women: Black Women’s
Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (Maryknoll: Orbis,
2001), 33-38; Williams, Sisters in the
Wilderness, 50.
[4]Delores Carpenter, A Time for Honor: A Portrait of African
American Clergywomen (St. Louis, Chalice Press, 2001), 2.
[5]My definition of womanism is a
summary of definitions provided by Cannon, Black
Womanist Ethics, 6-9; Katie G. Cannon, Katie’s
Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community (New York: Continuum,
1997), 34-56, 122-38; Monica A. Coleman, Making
a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008),
vii-9, 31-38; Marla F. Frederick, Between
Sundays: Black Women and the Everyday Struggles of Faith (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2003), 5-14; Gilkes, If It Wasn’t for the Women, 184-211; Diana L. Hayes, Hagar’s Daughters: Womanist Ways of Being in
the World (New York: Paulist Press, 1995), 49-54; Mitchem, ix; Riggs, Awake, Arise, and Act, 1-8; Raquel A.
St. Clair, Call and Consequences: A
Womanist Reading of Mark (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 1-12; Terrell, Power in the Blood, 6, 134; Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness, 1-8.
[6]Gilkes, If It Wasn’t for the Women, 111-14.
[7]This table contains the results
of my poll. I contacted thirty schools, either Baptist seminaries or seminaries
with programs in Baptist studies for student demographics, but only thirteen
released enrollment information.
[8]Information for 1973 and 1984
from Carpenter, A Time for Honor, and
information for 2004 and 2012 from The Association of Theological Schools
Annual Data Tables, 2011-2012 (available at http://www.ats.edu/Resources/PublicationsPresentations/Documents/AnnualDataTables/2011-12AnnualDataTables.pdf) (accessed April, 2012). ATS
provides racial distributions by gender, but does not classify this information
by denominational affiliation.
[9]Pamela R. Durso and Amy
Shorner-Johnson, “The State of Women in Baptist Life—2010,” Baptist Women in
Ministry, 2011. American Baptist Churches USA, Women in Ministry Task Force,
Report to Ministers Council Senate (2011), obtained via email from Patricia
Hernandez, April, 2012.
[10]PBS,
“Prathia Hall,” http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/prathia_hall.html (Accessed August 3, 2012).
[11]Courtney Pace-Lyons, “‘Freedom
Faith’: The Civil Rights Journey of Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall,” (Ph.D. diss.,
Baylor University, 2013).
[12]Sheila Sholes-Ross, email to
author, April 23, 2012.
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