Hurdles remain in Black churches
Patriarchal bias stymies women
No woman had ever preached the keynote sermon at the Joint National Baptist Convention, a gathering of four historically Black Baptist denominations representing millions of people.
That changed in January when the Rev. Gina Stewart took the convention stage in Memphis — the city home to Christ Missionary Baptist Church, where she serves as senior pastor — and delivered a rousing message, asserting that Jesus not only included women in his ministry, but identified with their suffering.
But what happened next put a spotlight on the obstacles that women in Christian ministry continue to face as they carve out leadership space within the patriarchal culture of Black churches in America. Several female pastors said that it should serve as the breaking point.
“This is an example of no matter how high you rise as a woman, you’re going to meet patriarchy at the top of the hill,” said Martha Simmons, founder of Women of Color in Ministry, which helps women navigate the process of getting ordained. “The next Norton Anthology of African American preaching is probably 20 years away, but that sermon will be in there.”
Despite the enthusiastic reception for Stewart, the original recording of her historic sermon disappeared from the convention’s Facebook page, setting off a social media firestorm — driven mostly by women — protesting its removal. A recording of the sermon reappeared, but it was followed by accusations that the convention edited her closing remarks, which challenges the four allied denominations to support women in ministry.
Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, did not reply to requests for comment. He said at another January meeting that he believed the Facebook page had been hacked and he planned to involve the FBI.
“I still don’t know what happened with the sermon, but what is clear is that this was a form of erasure,” Stewart said. “I was just as shocked, stunned, and surprised as everyone else.”
It is symptomatic of a larger problem, according to several Black female pastors interviewed. They emphasized how they were worn down by the physical and psychological toll of working in a male-dominated culture.
In some denominations, women have made progress. The African Methodist Episcopal Church estimates that onefourth of its total staff are women, including 1,052 ordained ministers.
In Black churches as a whole, male pastors predominate, though there’s no comprehensive gender breakdown. Simmons estimates that fewer than one in 10 Black Protestant congregations are led by a woman, even as more Black women are attending seminary.
The conditions aren’t new, but the public discourse over women’s equality in ministry has rapidly gained ground due in large part to the bullhorn that social media provides, said Courtney Pace, scholar-in-residence with Memphis-based Equity for Women in the Church. Pace noted how Facebook afforded Eboni Marshall Turman a venue to publicly share her grievances before filing a gender discrimination lawsuit in December against Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York.
Many theologically conservative Christian churches, including some Black Protestant denominations, prohibit women from preaching.