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Reviewed by Virginia A. Lee, Associate Professor of Christian Education, Memphis Theological Seminary and Deacon in full connection in the Virginia Conference. Courageous Past, Bold Future: The Journey Toward Full Clergy Rights for Women in the United Methodist Church by Patricia J. Thompson This book is like a treasured photo album one peruses at a family reunion. We discover pictures and stories of relatives we did not know existed, we see the family resemblance in many of the faces, and the stories tell us who we are. This Methodist “photo album” has familiar faces, newly discovered faces and stories, and a wealth of family history. In 2002, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry named a Fiftieth Anniversary Task Force for the Celebration of Full Clergy Rights for Women in the Methodist Tradition in 2006. The taskforce agreed that a “historical statement” needed to be written for the occasion. Pat Thompson, a member of that task force, was asked to write the book and she soon discovered the difficulties inherent in trying to identify the “first women” in a denomination with so many categories, conferences and predecessor denominations. One of the unexpected results of this project was the discovery of previously unknown women and their stories. Pauline Martindale was ordained in 1875 in Kansas in the Methodist Protestant Church and became the first woman in the Methodist tradition to be ordained an elder in full connection. Maggie Richie Elliott was ordained an elder in 1877 in Missouri, three years before Anna Howard Shaw who was previously thought to be the first woman ordained in the Methodist tradition. These women’s stories were unknown to the larger church because the records of the Kansas and Missouri conferences of the Methodist Protestant Church had never been published. It took this project to uncover this previously unknown family history. Courageous Past, Bold Future begins where all good Methodist “photo albums” begin – with the Wesleys. In the first chapter, Thompson traces the history of women preachers from the time of Wesley until the historic 1956 General Conference where women obtained full clergy rights. Many women and men worked for this decision, none more so than Dr. Georgia Harkness and the many laywomen of the Women’s Society of Christian Service. This is how Dr. Harkness would remember the occasion. In the General Conference of 1952, after repeated efforts to secure full clergy rights for women in successive General Conferences had been rejected, the matter came up in its closing moments. It was passed over rapidly with the usual rejection, to the accompaniment of considerable laughter. I may be divulging some unwritten history when I say that some of the women present resolved that it was no longer to be treated as a laughing matter! The consequence was the action of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service which resulted in over 2,000 petitions on the subject to the General Conference of 1956; between three and four hours of vigorous debate on the floor of the conference, mainly between men on both sides of the issue; and a vote for the full eradication of official sexual discrimination in the ministry of the Methodist Church. (28) Thompson tells this complicated history in a compelling and engaging manner. She tells the stories of “women preachers” in the United Brethren Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In the second chapter, Thompson tells the stories of the first twenty-seven women received into full conference membership following the historic 1956 decision. Also included are the stories of three women who were ordained with full clergy rights in the Methodist Protestant Church whose rights and credentials were recognized in 1939 when The Methodist Church was formed. These three women were still serving churches in 1956 so their stories belong in this section also. The Church of the United Brethren in Christ (UB Church) had been ordaining women to full clergy rights since 1889. Chapter three tells the story of twelve of these early pioneers. The remaining chapters tell the stories of women from the five jurisdictions and the central conferences. Thompson has identified the first women “in each annual conference, in every ethnic group represented in that conference, either to ‘serve’ in full connection or ‘to be received’ into full connection. (72) The biographies focus on “how each clergywoman received her call and how she experienced her journey in the ministry.” (72) There are approximately 300 biographies of Methodist foremothers and sisters in this “photo album.” This is the first time that all of this information about women in ministry in the Methodist tradition has been available in one volume. It is a book that can and should be used in many settings – United Methodist history and doctrine courses in seminary, United Methodist Women groups, Sunday School classes, and clergy reading groups. As Thompson notes in the foreword, “The United Methodist Church has indeed been blessed with many courageous women whose relationship with the steadfast and ever-faithful God may be the only thing that has kept them moving forward in their journeys to live out their call. The stories are sometimes humorous and sometimes hard to believe. They often reflect deep hurt, but just as often reveal heartfelt gratitude for the steady presence of God in their lives and the encouragement from those who supported them.” Although there is cause for celebration over our courageous past, Thompson’s last chapter identifies the challenges still present for women in ministry. In the face of these challenges, I think the women in our “family photo album” would remind us to be faithful to our call even in the face of adversity, to be open to the joys that ministry can provide, to keep speaking in the prophetic voices that God gives us, to support our sisters in ministry, and to challenge the injustices of the world. To do that is to be a woman in ministry in the Methodist tradition. These stories – or photos – are vivid reminders of where we have been and provide solace and inspiration for the journey ahead.
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