Introduction
As in almost every area of human endeavour, women also have a minuscule presence in positions of real power and decision making in religious leadership. Indeed it would be true to say that religious beliefs – be they Christian, Islamic, Judaic or Hindu have been behind many of the oppressions women have faced and the advances women have made. In this Western Christian world in which we live, people of African descent, especially women, have suffered and triumphed in the name of Christianity. As the observance of African History month ends, this article focuses on the struggles of women of African descent in one Church created by and for the descendants of African slaves and the triumph of one Guyanese woman in its hierarchy.
The struggle for the ordination of women in the A.M.E. church
In the same year 1787, that the committee was formed in Britain to work towards the abolition of the trade in captive Africans, the humiliation of African worshippers by the white members of St George’s Church, Philadelphia resulted in an exodus led by Richard Allen who not only provided the land but also purchased the frame that was to become “Bethel”, the first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. He was consecrated as its first Bishop in 1816. As in almost all denominations, its leadership was and is dominated by men. Like their brother leaders in other churches, they tended to ignore the affirmation of equality in Galatians 3:28 but to emphasize Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 14:34 that women should remain silent in the churches but must be in submission as the law commanded. This was further reinforced by the salient message of most religions that “women and men have different roles and characters; that religious authority speaks mainly with a male voice and that woman’s primary role is to accept that authority and to bear and raise children”. It is against this background that women’s struggle for ordination in the church took place.
In 1809, several years before the consecration of the first Bishop and less than a decade after, the same woman, Jarena Lee challenged the church on the matter of women preachers. She was pacified with the permission to function as an exhorter. Several decades later, in 1872, several female evangelists, including Amanda Berry Smith were admonished by the Bishop not to advocate the ordination of women at that year’s General Conference, the highest decision making body in the church. However, the intensification of the demands coincided with the advent of women’s struggle for suffrage. African American women too were challenging the theme of separate spheres and characters for women and men including what were a woman’s role and a woman’s place. Martha S. Jones noted “through more than half a century of fund raising and benevolent work African American women were emerging as highly visible participants in public culture including churches.” In the A.M.E. church matters came to a head in 1885 with the ordination of Sarah Ann Hughes as Itinerant Deacon. Her ordination was deemed contrary to law and rescinded. The General Conference went so far as to amend its doctrine and discipline to prevent the ordination of women to the ministry but confirmed the status of women as evangelists.
In the early decades of the 20th century the struggle was negatively impacted by the worsening race relations in America. It was the era of Jim Crow segregation and disenfranchisement when African American men were excluded from meaningful participation in public life in general, but political decision making in particular. White prejudice prevented the black man from sharing in the public space which all men saw as theirs by right. Consequently, according to Jones, “they looked to re-establish their claims to manhood through reassertion of male supremacy in the church.” In the AME church where small but significant concession had been made over several decades to women’s demands for recognition, the struggle for ordination became a pitched battle interlinked with that wider male struggle.
Into this fray came the redoubtable figure of Martha Jayne Keys. Born in Kentucky in 1892 to staunch members of the church, she converted as a teenager and by her early thirties had become a renowned evangelist and revivalist. She set herself the task of achieving ordination of women in her church through her indefatigable involvement in every aspect of the church’s work in order to demonstrate women’s competence and efficiency. It is recorded that at every General Conference between 1936 and 1960 she stubbornly pressed for the granting of equal status to female clergy. When at the 1940 General Conference her bill for ordination was again rejected she decided to use the incremental approach. It proved to be successful. In 1948, women were in the provision for ordination of local deacons and in 1960 female preachers attained full ordination as Itinerant Elders.
The Rev. Dorothy M. S. Morris, First Presiding Elder
As earlier mentioned, The General Conference is the highest decision making body of the AME church. It meets every four years and is attended by four members including the Bishop from each of the twenty Episcopal districts which make up the church. Each Episcopal district is governed by the decisions taken at its Annual Conference and is spearheaded by its bishop and Presiding Elder(s).The number of Presiding Elders in each Annual Conference depends on the number and size of congregations within it. There are seven groups of countries including Guyana-Suriname in the 16th Episcopal District.
Because it has only one Presiding Elder, it represents a Presiding Elder District.
The position of Presiding Elder is of considerable importance within the church’s hierarchy. The Bishop who presides over an annual conference relies on the Presiding Elder to supply accurate information and recommendations about the pastors and congregations within the jurisdiction. On the basis of this information, the Bishop makes decisions about pastoral assignments and re-assignments and other matters of good governance in the jurisdiction. Additionally, the Presiding Elder each year conducts a quarterly conference at each church, an annual district conference and a Sunday School Convention. He/she is the second tier of authority between the Bishop and the pastor of each church and to whom each pastor is initially accountable.
This is the esteemed position to which Reverend Dorothy Millicent Stephens Morris was appointed to act by Bishop Frederick H. Talbot in 1973. She was appointed a full fledged Presiding Elder the following year. The position of Presiding Elder became optional for annual conferences in 1868 but because the struggle for female ordination did not come to final fruition until 1960, no woman served in that position until that historic appointment of a Guyanese woman.
The Rev Millicent Morris was born on July 21, 1912 the second daughter to James Alexander Stephens and Josephine Ivy Hackett Stephens. Her mother died in 1913 and her great aunt who reared her mother now took care of her and her older sister, Muriel. Dorothy was educated in the Pomeroon and later sent to Georgetown by her postmaster father. In 1956, she married Reverend Alphonso Morris, a widower with three children.
He was stationed at the Ebenezer AME church in the already depressed Charlestown area. It was here that her desire to become a “missionary” became fulfilled. As a result of her missionary work she was consecrated a deaconess by Bishop Odie L. Sherman in 1957. On her husband’s death in 1962, his parishioners specifically requested that she become their pastor. To this end she pursued ministerial studies locally with the help of Rev. Talbot. On March 1, 1964, Bishop Richard R. Wright, Jr. ordained her a Local Deacon. On April 20, 1969, Bishop G. Wayman Blakey ordained her an Itinerant Elder. In recognition of her work among children and the aged in the poorer section of the city, she was granted a Medal of Service by President Burnham.
She served for five years as Presiding Elder. Now a nonagenarian, she is superannuated from the Guyana Annual Conference but still occasionally attends the St. Peter A. M. E. church.
The second woman to be appointed a Presiding Elder in the AME church, Rev. Helen C. Patrick, was also made by Bishop Talbot. Indeed between 1973 and 2002, nine bishops have appointed 19 female Presiding Elders in the AME church. As already mentioned Rev. Morris is retired. Four others are deceased and the remaining female Presiding Elders currently serve in the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 17th and 19th Episcopal districts.
The 2008 Annual Conference of the 16th Episcopal District of the AME church will take place here in Georgetown from April 2-6. The Presiding Bishop, Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry is one of only three (15%) female bishops among 20 in the AME church. Since the last of the two appointments was made all of 32 years ago the district has never again had a woman as Presiding Elder.
How far indeed have the women come!!!