United Methodist clergywomen confer and encourage

The United Methodist Church has ordained women since 1956, but Bishop Peggy Johnson still gets the occasional admonition when she prepares to appoint a minister to a new church: "Don't you send us a woman."

The request is a stinging reminder that although female clergy are finally pushing against the stained-glass ceiling, resistance still lingers, said Johnson, leader of the denomination's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

The bishop, who supervises congregations in 16 counties, was one of 400 United Methodist clergywomen who met this week in Lancaster to celebrate the obstacles they have overcome and to confront the ones that remain.

"When I [was ordained] in the late '70s, there were so few of us that we had to stick together, and we had meetings to encourage and support each other," said the Rev. Michele Bartlow, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church of Germantown. "Now, it does my soul good to see all these women. The church needs to continue to break down barriers."

Clergywomen from Maine to the District of Columbia attended workshops designed to encourage the ministers to be "Bodacious and Bold" in their callings. The theme was aligned with the meeting's signature Bible passages, from 2 Corinthians about lifting the veil. The conference ended Wednesday.

The meeting comes at a time when studies show that female clergy in Protestant churches have doubled their ranks among senior pastors from to 5 percent to 10 percent and are a dominant presence in seminaries.

In the United Methodist Church, the number of female clergy has increased from 8,892 in 2006 to 9,135 in 2011. A total of 41,380 ministers serve in the church, the country's third-largest Protestant denomination.

But the strides that have been made are still weighted down by inequality, said the Rev. HiRho Y. Park, the denomination's director of continuing formation for ministry. Female clergy in the United Methodist Church are paid 13 percent less than their male counterparts, Park said.

The Rev. Alicia M. Julia-Stanley, an associate pastor at Emilie United Methodist Church in Levittown, said it took her 20 years to earn a salary above the minimum set by the denomination. Congregations decide to pay above the minimum based on talent, experience, and schooling, Julia-Stanley said. She believes her sex negatively influenced salary decisions.