Heeding the call

Decades ago, when Carol Landry was in high school, she knew she wanted to be a minister. The problem was, she had no female to look to for guidance, so she decided to settle on being a minister's wife.

"Nobody had ever heard of a woman minister, so that wasn't an option," she said. Landry never married a minister, but she became one in 1994, and now she guides Unity Church on the Mountain in Huntsville.

Landry represents a small but growing number of females in leadership roles at Christian churches.

In 2003, George Barna of the Barna Group, an organization specializing in Christian research, cited in a survey that 6 percent of all Protestant senior pastors are women. According to numbers from "Women with a Mission: Religion, Gender and the Politics of Women Clergy," by Laura R. Olson, Sue E. S. Crawford and Melissa M. Deckman, the United Methodist Church has seen an increase of women in clergy climb from 2 percent in 1977 to 17 percent in 2000.

Like Landry, Margaret Hanson Taylor saw the void of women pastors growing up. When she became the founding rector of Holy Apostle Episcopal Church in Birmingham 13 years ago at 49, women in parish ministry were scarce.

Marsha DuCille grew up the daughter of a female pastor. "As a by product, I naturally have been involved in ministry," she said.

About a year ago, she put her background in publishing and writing to use after receiving spiritual prophesy redirecting her future in academia. Shortly after, the idea for CALLED, a quarterly cross-

denominational magazine, was born. The magazine, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., targets female pastors and women in ministry, and tries to provide "tangible resources" that guide single, married, divorced and widowed women in their day jobs and life outside of church.

Guidance for life is welcome, Landry said.

Though her children are grown up, and she doesn't juggle family and marriage with her vocation, she's busy enough. "There's always something to do," she said.

"I don't have to balance priorities between church and family," she said. "I can definitely appreciate how difficult it is. Your church family sees you as their prime resource and your family sees you as their prime resource."

Then there's the question of acceptance, from inside and outside the church.

"I think every woman in the ministry struggles being accepted as a woman," Taylor said. "I have faced criticism from other denominations, most of whom don't look me in the face." She said acting as if everyone accepts her helps her do her job. "When they see it happen and the sky doesn't fall, they see (women) have some special gifts." Being relatable to women in their congregation is one gift. "I think there are times when women express empathy that is unique - especially to other women," she said.

DuCille also experienced her share of protest.

"We have received some pretty strong opposition from men and women alike from more conservative denominations," she said. But she is quick to point out the magazine has a strictly spiritual agenda. "We are not a feminist publication. We are a Christ-centered publication," she said.

The magazine addresses the many roles some women in leadership positions struggle to balance: pastor, mother, wife and oftentimes, counselor.

"A lot of pastors are forced to counsel (members of their congregations) in subjects they're not familiar with, 21st century issues," DuCille said, including depression and substance abuse.

Moving beyond the four walls of her church posed some challenges to DuCille. She said working with non-Christians on a daily basis put her out of her comfort zone. But "the world can no longer afford to live in an incubator," DuCille said. It was creating a working unity among multiple denominations, whom many staff writers represent, that proved the biggest challenge. "I became less my denomination and became strictly a promoter of Christ," said DuCille, who is nondenominational. She is confident about the future of her magazine and its growing audience. She sees it as a sign that women are becoming more accepted in leadership roles.

"It's a very slow process, but little by little we're seeing it become a non-issue," Hanson said.

Jennifer Crossley can be reached at 740-5743 or jennifer.crossley@timesdaily.com.