Thoughts on next Sunday's sermon

"Women's Ministry Sunday"

It was in the lat 1980's that the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church urged all of our churches to have a "Women's Ministry Sunday". The reason for doing this was not obvious then and is not very evident even today. 15 years ago there was an interesting reversal of a trend in seminaries. More and more second career women were going to theological schools and preparing for ministry. There was a time when the number of women far exceeded the number of men.

The Conference realized that many of our churches had never had a woman preacher and many of our large churches had never had a woman Senior Minister. With the demographic turn it became necessary for all churches to begin to take women's ministry seriously and to consider the possibility of a woman spiritual leader.

But Women's Ministry Sunday is much more than an adjustment to the increase of women clergy. It is established to honor the women who have built our churches into the outstanding institutions they have become. It is an opportunity to acknowledge the historic importance of the United Methodist Women's organization and the significant contribution made by UMW concerning women and children's issues all over the world.

Later this week I will have someone post more information about next Sunday. You can direct your questions to meganryan@fcfumc.net.

Our church has been fortunate to have had some wonderful women clergy in the past and at present but we have never had a woman Senior Minister. Some day we will and there are outstanding women clergy in our Rocky Mountain Conference.

If you have thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Do you think the church has been fair to the women clergy in the past or do you think women are treated fairly in the church presently?

I look forward to hearing from you.

If you are willing to have the community read your thoughts click on the 'comments' box below.


Charles Schuster