This is a photo of Rev. Fe Nebres at her ordination
as a minister in the United Church of Christ.
Rev. Nebres is the mom of one of our coaches...
"These heretical women- how audacious they are! They have no modesty; they are bold enough to teach, to engage in argument, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures, and, it may, be, even to baptize!"
--Tertullian, 2nd century church father
There's a new look in religon in the Bay Area, and it's unmistakably female. Women now outnumber men at six of the region's 11 Christian seminaries, and they're closing in on the Baptists and Roman Catholics. While men enrollments have been decreasing, women enrollment has been increasing dramaticaly. This historic gender shift is called the "feminization of ministry. "
Women are drawn to the caring and the community feeling that comes with ministry. It feels very natural. Other women feel that they should change religious institutions that have been run for all their existence in a patriarchal way. They wonder what they would look like if women would have thought them through.
In the Bay Area, 21% of the 328 priests in the Episcopal Church are women. The numbers are and have beeen increasing and hopefully with the growing support that they receive, they will be able to overcome more obstacles and be accepted as equal members of the church.
| 1659-- Quaker leader Mary Dyer was sentenced to death by a Puritan court in Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Salem witch trials. | 1852-- Harriet Beecher Stowe published "Uncle Tom's Cabin, " with its theme that slavery was incompatible with Christianity. | 1874-- First national convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union |
| 1882-- May C. Jones was ordained by the Northern Baptist Association of Puget Sound, and installed as interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Seattle. | 1923-- Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson of Los Angeles organized the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. | 1956-- Full ordination rights for women was granted in the mainline Presbyterian and Methodist denominations. |
| 1976-- Episcopal Church opened the priesthood to women. | 1984-- Rev. Leontine Kelly became the first black woman consecrated as a bishop in the United Methodist Church. | 1988-- Episcopal Diocese of Massachusettes elected Barbara Clementine Harris as an assistant bishop. |