8.28.2006

I can PREACH...

... and ain't I a woman?

I'm stealing from Maya Angelou. But, ain't I? Ain't I a woman? And not to be arrogant, but I've been told that I can preach. I've been told that I have the gift. Ahem. Excuse me.

But, apparently, we are not all ready to see women in the pulpit. It's something that we are struggling with in all of cour churches -- liberal to conservative. It made the cover of the New York Times on Saturday. And it baffles me. I've heard it before. But, there it is on the cover of the New York Times. It reads:


The Rev. Dottie Escobedo-Frank, pastor of Crossroads United Methodist Church in Phoenix, said that at every church where she has served, people have told her they were leaving because she is a woman.

At a large church where she was an associate pastor, a colleague told her that when she was in the pulpit, he could not focus on what she was saying because she is a woman. A man in the congregation covered his eyes whenever she preached.


Most women clergy (and those of us in training) have heard these comments. But, honey, I can preach. I will preach. And ain't I a woman?

1 comment:

Mystical Seeker said...

The pastor of the UCC church that I started attending a month ago happens to be a woman, andshe seems to be quite good at what she does. I definitely like her sermons.

Have you read the book "Leaving Church" by Barbara Brown Taylor? Interesting memoir by a woman who was a pastor of an Episcopalian church in Georgia, and quite successful at it. She found ultimately that the job wasn't really her calling, but her experiences as a woman and a preacher are interesting, although the real focus of her book is in her search for a profession that suited her theology and personality.