Feeling a bit sluggish today… after over a month of generally avoiding bread and bread products, I went a little bit crazy today at the breakfast reception following worship here at the Center. One big, one little muffin, a donut hole, and several pieces of the leftover communion bread. Mary Elva’s husband Reg is a fantastic cook, and his communion bread was some of the best I’d ever tasted.

Why the celebration? Today is International Women’s Day, and two of my colleagues led a moving worship service dedicated to the women who have been called to lead in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For those of you not in the know of PresbyLand, this year is the 100th anniversary of women ordained as deacons in the Presbyterian Church and the 50th anniversary of women ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament (aka your pastors). Last year was the 75th anniversary of women’s ordination as elders.

Okay, let me backtrack a moment here—I’m guessing that the majority of you don’t even know what a deacon or an elder is. Or you attend a church that only has deacons. Well, according to my handy dandy Book of Order (very near and dear to the heart of every true Presbyterian, although not quite up there with the Bible), Presbyterian deacons are the ones in charge of ministry to “those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless, and to any who may be in distress both within and beyond the community of faith” (G-6.0401). In other words, they focus on all those nurturing sort of things. Now if you’re not Presbyterian, your “deacon” probably functions more like a Presbyterian elder… the folks on the board (aka “session” in PresbySpeak) that actually run the church (I’ll refrain here from quoting the Book of Order on their specific responsibilities, since it can be summed up by saying they do a bit of everything. But if you really want to know, check out G-6.0304). The elders are also the people who can represent the congregation in the Presbyterian church’s higher governing bodies, along with ministers.

After looking at those definitions, the order in which women gained admission into leadership of the church kind of makes sense—back in 1906, when women were seen culturally as moral guardians of the home and defenders of the weak, it seemed safe enough to ordain them as deacons. That was a position under the authority of the minister and elders, anyway. But once they were playing a major role as deacons, men began to recognize their gifts as elders. And once women finally had a seat at the decision-making tables of the church as elders, it paved the way for the ordination of our foremothers as pastors.

I think it is also important to point out that, as much as advocacy made these things happen, the recognition of women’s leadership ability in the church also came from women who just went ahead and did stuff. When women were shut out of the church’s power structures in the 19th century, for example, they organized their own Women’s Home Missions Board and Women’s Foreign Missions Board. There they were able to further the work of God on their own terms, funding missionaries and doing necessary social mission in their own communities without direct control from men. Part of the reason women became elders in the first place, in the 1930s, was because they demanded a say in what happened to their mission work after the all-male leadership of the denomination absorbed them into its own missions board. Women not only pushed the church toward justice and equality, but also just went ahead and began building the world God was calling them toward.

Sometimes I wish people of my generation appreciated more the struggles of our foremothers. And when I say “appreciated,” I don’t mean appreciate only through attending a Women’s History Month event. That is good, of course. But the best way to honor what our foremothers did is to carry on their work—not to rest until all women can serve God as they feel called, until all women are free from violence and hunger and discrimination. We should heap more gifts on our children, not lose the ones our mothers gave us.

Happy International Women’s Day—and may you find the freedom today to live out God’s call in your own life.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God… of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” --Ephesians 4:4-6

Kelsey