Venice Presbyterian Church — Venice, Florida Venice Presbyterian Church is a happy place! VPC started the first Family Promise in town by inviting the national director to visit and speak. Families experiencing homelessness now stay for a week in a church facility where nice cots with mattresses are set up. They are served breakfast and a hot meal for supper prepared by volunteers. There are games and activities for the children and help with homework. Adults are given assistance in finding jobs and a place to live within their means. The families are invited to church services and activities. Now, 13 churches of different denominations are involved. VPC also sponsors Buddy Break, where parents of children with special needs can drop their kids off one day a month so the kids can enjoy fun and games with VPC volunteers. And MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meets twice a month for hot breakfast and a program. — Diane Penick, Presbyterian Women president Share your 150-word … [Read more...]
A Presbyterian woman in Chicago …
A Presbyterian woman in downtown Chicago saw a young barefoot lad. She took him to a shoe store and asked for warm water to wash his feet. She dried them off and bought six pairs of socks and put one pair on him. Then she bought him a pair of shoes. She reported to her pastor that he looked up and asked, “Are you God’s wife?” … [Read more...]
First Presbyterian Church in Richmond
First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, supports Presbyterian Women. With so many women working, many women’s groups have eliminated circles. At First Presbyterian Church on the day when they install officers and start a new year, they hold the traditional luncheon together. Then, they separate for dessert. Each circle meets over dessert to organize. A sweet idea! … [Read more...]
Woman minister (63 years ago)
63 years ago — November 12, 1956 By 1930, the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. had opened the door to ordination for women serving as elders. In 1955, the denomination approved women’s ordination to the office of pastor. On October 24, 1956, Syracuse Presbytery ordained 31-year-old, five-foot-two-inch Margaret Towner affirming her call as a minister to First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “She wants people just to keep on calling her Margaret, as they have been doing before … she doesn’t want people to feel differently toward her now.” She “was born in Columbia, Mo., majored in art and music at Carlton College, Northfield, Minn., and then began work on pre-medical courses. Upon graduation she became a professional photographer at the Mayo Clinic, taking pictures of operations and other medical activities. In Syracuse, N.Y., she opened her own photographic studio … . Then she decided to enter church work, taking the full three-year course at Union Seminary in N.Y., … [Read more...]
The rise of women in the pulpit
The boundary breakers When the Northern Presbyterian Church (United Presbyterian Church in the United States of American) ordained Margaret Towner in 1956, Life Magazine ran a five-page photo spread on the historic event. The ceremony, held at The First Presbyterian Church Syracuse in New York, was reported and broadcasted over national media. Reverend Towner’s ordination was about women, not about one woman. It was a watershed moment for women’s equality, for dismantling gender power structures within the church and for ordained ministry in the Presbyterian Church. It took 36 years from the time the first overture to ordain women as elders and as ministers of the Word went before the General Assembly in 1920. It was the same year women were granted the right to vote in the United States. Towner invited the pastoral staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Allentown in Pennsylvania, where she was called as a minister, to participate in her ordination so that they … [Read more...]
Ministry interrupted
Women get interrupted more frequently than men. Studies reveal this, but I didn’t need research to confirm this truth — my own experience offers enough evidence. Even the most powerful women are interrupted more than their male counterparts. An article in Aeon magazine, “How men continue to interrupt even the most powerful women,” details findings from a survey of the Supreme Court justices. The authors report, “There are few more powerful positions than being a Supreme Court justice, yet the female justices are just like other women: talked over by their male colleagues.” They go on to note that these interruptions have real consequences. “Scholars have shown that oral arguments shape case outcomes, so any systematic interference with the female justices’ ability to fully participate will limit their substantive power on the court.” Speaking and being heard matter. Words equal influence. Habitually silencing diverse voices limits vision, imagination and possibilities on the Supreme … [Read more...]
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