Sponsored by: Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association

Speakers: The Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods, Betty Jo Middleton, and the Rev. Dr. Linda Smith Stowell

Center Days for ministers at the 1998 UUA General Assembly focused on the impact of women on the UU ministry. Center Days is a program to center, deepen and expand skills and vision for ministry. Called "Leaping From Our Spheres," the 1998 program included an educational experience which itself was intended to model the impact of women: both the presentation of prepared information and a process for participants to contribute to the understanding of the subject, speaking from their personal experience.

The result is a book, available at the session (and at the UUMA table at General Assembly), of proceedings from the 1998 session, edited by the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods. This GA session covered highlights from the book.

First, Betty Jo Middleton noted that although the acceptance of women in our ministry may be ahead of the wider culture, progress has been difficult and there are still issues to be resolved. Many pioneers from "when it just wasn't done" are still around and many wounds are not yet healed. She pointed to the experience of ministers of religious education, where the mostly-female ministers are also often devalued because they are perceived as working mainly with children.

Next, the Rev. Dr. Linda Smith Stowell spoke of her research into "Gender, Ministry, and Mysticism," some of which is included in the book. She talked of the gender and generational differences among Unitarian Universalists with several significant differences, most notably between younger women clergy and retired male clergy. These differences included reported direct religious experience (mystical experiences) and belief in the validity of intercessional prayer. Women, she noted, are more likely to be tolerant of ambiguity, to engage in dialogue instead of debate, and to experience an interconnected world with permeable boundaries.

The third speaker, the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods, spoke of several issues that are also highlighted in the book. First, she noted that for more women, organizational behavior is understood more as relational, seeing interlocking circles instead of traditional organizational charts. Second, in the realm of ethics, women's presence in the ministry has helped to break silences about abusive power, and to see ethics more as about relationships instead of rules. Third, theology and ritual have been areas where UUs have had to respond to women's perspectives.

Then Woods noted that change and transition in recent years has included a change in consciousness or perspective that is not limited to gender. UUs have become less convinced that two-pole ways of looking at issues are valid, and have adopted more pluralistic perspectives: about gender, about governance, about many issues. And she noted the open question: Is women's presence in ministry more a cause or reflection of change?

Other changes mentioned included a different climate among ministers: male ministers report a significant increase of collegiality and lessened sense of competitiveness since women have come into ministry. Younger male ministers also seem more likely to be comfortable operating cooperatively.

In the discussion that followed, the issue of backlash was raised. Is there a growing sense that having a ministry now more than 50% women is "deleterious to our professionalism" and is there a move towards a "more manly ministry" as there was in the late 19th century, the last period when women came into both Unitarian and Universalist ministry in large numbers?

Questions of equitability in salary were also raised. Are women not only more willing to take up ministries with congregations that men might not be willing to take on, and are women more likely to accept lower salaries than men would? Are women as able to negotiate strongly for fair, larger salaries than men are?

Another questioner raised issues of parenting: are women ministers with young children accepted as readily in ministry as a male minister in the same situation?

In 1837, a Pastoral Letter by the orthodox Congregational ministers of Massachusetts warned that women speaking in public could lead to dangers, and Unitarian Maria Weston Chapman humorously responded with a poem, which was read at the workshop and is in the proceedings. "Confusion has seized us, and all things go wrong, / The women have leaped from 'their spheres.'" The questions raised by women in ministry may still be confusing, but the outcome of the 1998 Center exploration may help to shed some light on the questions.

Reported by Rev. Jone Johnson Lewis; formatted for the web by Kasey Melski.