Women clergy: more liberal, more political?
Amid public debate over clergy’s role in politics and deep divides among clergy over political issues comes a new factor: the steady increase in women clergy. Studies show that they tend to be more liberal and, in some cases, more likely to engage in political and civic issues. From researchers to congregants, more people are finding out how these women are affecting issues outside church and synagogue walls.
Although overall numbers of Protestant clergywomen are unavailable, the Association of Theological Schools reports that women constitute a steadily rising share of the students seeking master of divinity degrees in member seminaries – multiplying almost seven times in 30 years, to 32 percent in 2002. Individual denominations report large increases, too. Reform Judaism began ordaining women in 1972 and now has nearly 400 female rabbis. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says the percentage of its ordained clergy who are women doubled from 1991 to 2003, to 16 percent.
The next question is how clergywomen will affect community life and politics as their numbers grow. Studies show that they tend to be overwhelmingly liberal on most issues and tend to vote for Democratic candidates. They often support abortion rights, gay rights and gay marriage, peace advocacy and social justice issues. In some denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, clergywomen seem to be more activist than their male counterparts. African-American clergywomen tend to carry on the African-American tradition of politically active and liberal clergy whether they are in predominantly black or predominantly white denominations. Scholars say politically conservative women clergy are more likely to be found in rural areas and evangelical Protestant traditions that ordain women.
Why it Matters
The role of women in organized religion remains a much-debated topic: In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, decided women could no longer serve as senior pastors. Roman Catholics, who make up a quarter of the U.S. population, do not ordain women. At the same time, women continue to far outnumber men in the pews and move into more positions of religious leadership.
Questions for reporters
Stories about women clergy have often focused on disparities in pay, prestige and position, or “glass ceilings.” Talk to women who were “firsts” in your area – first senior pastor in a faith tradition, first pastor of a large church, first senior rabbi – and ask them their perspective on how women’s roles have changed. Talk to women clergy in your area about what formed their views on how they should engage in political issues and what results they have seen from their work. Talk to men who are involved in the same issues about how women have affected issue-oriented work.
Who are the politically and civically active women clergy in your area? (If you find one, she can probably refer you to more.) What causes are they involved in? Are they concentrated in a few issues and organizations, or scattered among several? Are they using different approaches to political activism than men clergy do? How do they think clergy’s community work might change if there are more women clergy?
What do African-American women clergy say about their political and civic work?
What do congregation members say about how they view clergy’s roles in community? Do they see differences in the ways men and women clergy act on their faith outside church and synagogue walls?
While some denominations do not allow women in senior clergy roles, there are still many ways women serve, often in high positions. What do Southern Baptist women who serve as educators or Roman Catholic women who serve as chancellors in dioceses say about how women’s roles in the church have changed and how they are valued? How are these women involved in community and political issues?
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National sources
ACADEMIC SOURCES
• Adair T. Lummis is a sociologist of religion and a faculty associate in research for the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut. Her specialties include women in church leadership. Her books include, as co-author, Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998). She says some data from a 2002 Episcopal study on which she worked indicates that Episcopal clergywomen are significantly more active in a range of political/social advocacy than Episcopal clergymen. Contact 860-509-9547, alummis@hartsem.edu.
• Laura Olson has studied the role of clergy in politics. She is associate professor of political science at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., and co-author of Women With a Mission: Gender, Religion and the Politics of Women Clergy, under advance contract from the University of Alabama Press. Her books include, as co-editor, Christian Clergy in American Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) and, as author, Filled With Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics (State University of New York Press, 2000). She says women clergy are overwhelmingly politically liberal, and they vote for Democratic candidates and hold liberal positions on most issues. She says some politically conservative women clergy can be found in rural areas and in evangelical Protestant traditions. Contact 864-656-1457, laurao@clemson.edu.
• Corwin Smidt is directing a study surveying clergy about political participation. He is a political science professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and executive director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin. He edited In God We Trust? Religion & American Political Life (Baker Book House, 2001) and Religion as Social Capital: Producing the Common Good (Baylor University Press, 2003) and co-authored The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (University Press of Kansas, 1998) and Evangelicalism: The Next Generation (Baker Book House, 2002). Contact 616-957-6233, smid@calvin.edu.
• Sue Crawford is a political science professor at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. She co-edited Christian Clergy in American Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) and co-authored Women With a Mission: Gender, Religion and the Politics of Women Clergy, under advance contract from the University of Alabama Press. She says studies in which she has participated found only around 5 percent of women clergy reported ever running for office. They are more typically involved in advocacy, campaigning, political education/awareness and civic and service work. She says that most women clergy sampled were moderate to liberal and that female mainline clergy tend to be more liberal than male mainline clergy. Contact 402-280-2569, Crawford@creighton.edu.
• Religion scholar Barbara Brown Zikmund teaches at the Graduate School of American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. Her books include, as co-author, Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling (Westminster John Knox Press 1998). She has conducted several major studies of clergywomen and teaches a course on women and politics. She says there are few politically conservative women clergy because conservative denominations do not have many women clergy. She says the most politically active clergy in American Protestantism are African-Americans – either in black denominations or in black congregations within predominantly white denominations – and that the few black women clergy carry on the tradition of political activism, usually with liberal politics. Contact +81-75-251-3931 main office, +81-75-251-3915 her office, bzikmund@mail.doshisha.ac.jp or bbz@hartsem.edu.
WOMEN CLERGY
• Rabbi Janet Ross Marder is the first woman elected president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the association of Reform rabbis in the United States. She is senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Calif. Contact 650-493-4661, rabbi_Marder@betham.org.
• The Rev. Delores Carpenter is professor of divinity at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and pastor of Michigan Park Christian Church. She is the author of A Time for Honor: A Portrait of African-American Clergywomen (Chalice Press, 2001). She says black women pastors are more likely to be politically active than white pastors. Contact 202-806-0636, REVPROF@AOL.COM.
• Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, lecturer and writer, is the executive director of Benetvision, a resource center for contemporary spirituality in Erie, Pa. She co-chairs the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, a group that formed from the Fourth United Nations Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995. The initiative’s current project is facilitating a peace meeting between Israeli and Palestinian women in Jerusalem in 2004. She is a founding member of the International Committee for the Peace Council. Chittister is past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the national organization of leaders of the 75,000 Catholic religious women in the United States. Contact her through 814-459-5994 or 814-459-0314, matobin@verizon.net.
• The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, who has standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and American Baptist Church, directs the Department of Religion for the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y. She chairs the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders and serves on the national committee of the Clergy Leadership Network for National Leadership Change. Contact her through 716-357-6274 or sthayer@chautauqua-inst.com.
• The Rev. Marion Jackson, director of continuing education for ministry for the United Methodist Church, can discuss the increase of clergy women in the denomination and suggest interview sources in different regions. Women currently outnumber men in Methodist seminaries. Read a 2000 backgrounder on Methodist women clergy. Statistics show that, in 2002, 19 percent of Methodist clergy were female. Contact 615-340-7391, mjackson@gbhem.org.
• Debra M. Gill is commissioner of discipleship for the Assemblies of God denomination in Springfield, Mo., and an ordained pastor. The commission’s web site links to articles she has written about women clergy in the Assemblies of God. Contact 417-862-2781 ext. 4080.
Background
• The Association of Theological Schools reports that the percentage of women in its member seminaries more than tripled in 30 years, from 10.2 percent in fall 1972 to 36 percent in fall 2002. The percentage of women enrolled in those schools’ master of divinity programs grew by nearly seven times (from 4.7 percent to 32 percent) during the same period. Contact Nancy Merrill, director of communications, at 412-788-6505 ext. 234, merrill@ats.edu.
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says the percentage of women ordained ministers has doubled from 8 percent in 1991 to 16 percent in July 2003. Read the ELCA facts.
• The Episcopal Church in 1973 had no women priests, but in the 1998 Episcopal Clerical Directory, women accounted for 13.8 percent of those listed, according to statistics on Episcopal women clergy compiled by Louie Crew, an English professor emeritus at Rutgers University in East Orange, N.J., who is Episcopalian. Contact 973-395-1068 or lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
• An Episcopal Church study reported 3,481 women ordained priests or deacons in 2002, compared with 855 in 1987, and 11 women bishops compared with none in 1987. The study also reported acceptance of women in leadership positions is greatest at the national level and steadily decreases at the diocesan and congregational levels. Adair T. Lummis, a sociologist of religion and a faculty associate in research for the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut, participated in the study and is doing a further analysis of data gathered. Contact 860-509-9547, alummis@hartsem.edu.
• The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, voted in 2000 that “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” Read an article, “Southern Baptists and Women Pastors,” by the SBC’s executive committee. Read a June 14, 2000, CNN.com article.
• Read about the Cooperative Clergy Research Project, in which Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College is studying clergy’s political participation across denominations.
• Read a Dec. 15, 2003, article, “Politics in the Pulpit,” by religion historian Martin E. Marty about an extensive study of clergy and politics published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in December 2003.
• Read a report on a 1998 conference called “Clergy in Politics: Choices and Consequences” at Creighton University, which looked at why and how clergy engage in politics.
• Antoinette Brown 150 years ago became the first woman ordained in any major Protestant tradition. Brown, a well-known lecturer on temperance and the abolition of slavery, was ordained on Sept. 15, 1853, in a small Congregational Church in South Butler, N.Y., according to a September 2003 article by Barbara Brown Zikmund in the United Church News.
• Women clergy tend to be liberal, feminist, tolerant and concerned about the poor, according to a 2000 Sightings article by religious historian Martin Marty posted by Beliefnet.com.
• Read “Women, Men and Styles of Clergy Leadership,” a 1998 Christian Century article posted by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research.
• Read a Time.com article reporting on the growth of women in ministry in general.
Regional sources
• Patricia M.Y. Chang is an associate research professor in sociology and assistant director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. Her research interests include religious institutions, women clergy, power in the church, Catholicism and the transmission of faith. She is a co-author of Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998). Contact 617-552-1861 or changpc@bc.edu.
• Rabbi Sheila P. Weinberg of Amherst, Mass., is a senior faculty member and director of community outreach for the Spirituality Institute. She serves on the Steering Committee for Rabbis for Human Rights North America and has spoken out on peace issues, gay marriage, reproductive/abortion rights and environmental concerns. She is active in Religious Witness for the Earth, an organization dedicated to environmental preservation. Weinberg also is active in promoting interreligious dialogue, and she expresses concern about globalization issues and the widening income gap between rich and poor. Contact 413-549-4176, Shoolamit@aol.com.
• The Rev. Natalie Shiras, a United Church of Christ minister, is pastor of The Church on the Hill in Lenox, Mass. She works with the Women’s Interfaith Institute, Pittsfield Area Council of Churches and various clergy associations on justice issues related to public education, health access and same-sex unions. Contact 413-637-1001, nshiras@rnetworx.com.
• The Rev. Carrie Bail is pastor of the First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ in Williamstown, Mass. She has been speaking out in support of gay rights, including gay marriage, and in opposition to the war in Iraq. Contact 413-458-4273, rev.cbail@verizon.net.
• Melissa Deckman is an assistant professor of political science at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and co-author of Women With a Mission: Gender, Religion and the Politics of Women Clergy, under advance contract from the University of Alabama Press. Contact 800-422-1782 ext. 7494, mdeckman2@washcoll.edu.
• The Rev. Allison Stokes, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, is chaplain to the Protestant community at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y. She is founding director of the Women’s Interfaith Institute in Seneca Falls, N.Y. In February 2003 the institute bought a historic church in Seneca Falls next door to the Women’s Rights National Park. Formal opening and dedication will be June 18-20, 2004. Her books include, as co-author, Defecting in Place: Women Claiming Responsibility for Their Own Spiritual Lives (Crossroad, 1994). Contact 607-274-3185, astokes@ithaca.edu.
• The Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson is executive director of the Clergy Leadership Network for National Leadership Change, a new political advocacy coalition of moderate and liberal religious leaders. Its national office is in Washington, D.C. She is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Contact 202-554-2121.
• The Right Rev. Vashti Murphy McKenzie of Baltimore, Md., is the first woman bishop in the African American Episcopal Church. She presides over the Southern African countries of Lesotho, Swaziland, Bothswana and Mozambique. She serves on the steering committee of the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious Leaders. Her books include Not Without a Struggle: Leadership Development For African American Women in Ministry (United Church Press, 1996). Contact 410-418-4305, BishopMcKenzie@18thame.org.
• Louie Crew, an English professor emeritus at Rutgers University in East Orange, N.J., who is Episcopalian, has researched statistics on Episcopal women clergy. He posts his data here. Contact 973-395-1068, lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
• The Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, who is ordained in the American Baptist Church, is an author, speaker and senior pastor at the Bronx Christian Fellowship, which she founded. Contact 718-537-7268, sujayc@aol.com.
• The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton is rector and pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul in Chatham, N.J. She speaks out for gay rights, gay marriage and AIDS education. She is program director for Integrity USA, a nonprofit organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Episcopalians, and is a member of the executive committee for Claiming the Blessing, which promotes liturgical blessings of gay marriages. Read a transcript of a Nov. 3, 2003, MSNBC interview with her, posted by her church. Contact 973-635-8085 (office), 973-635-2045 (home), or EMKaeton@aol.com.
• The Rev. Noelle Damico of Setauket, N.Y., is a United Church of Christ minister who directed the national UCC’s grassroots justice and peace network on Capitol Hill from 2000-2002. She now serves as coordinator of the Justice and Witness Ministries of the UCC New York Conference, which coordinates justice and peace work with 300 congregations statewide. Damico serves as the Catalyst for the School of Theology of the University of the Poor, (click on Schools, then Theology) the educational arm of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. She is national coordinator for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s participation in the Taco Bell boycott in partnership with farmworkers from Immokalee, Fla. She is also active in efforts of the National Council of Churches, including the Micah 6 project and the Mobilization to Overcome Poverty. Contact 631-751-7051, ndamico@universityofthepoor.
• The Rev. Sandye Wilson is rector-elect of the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew and Holy Communion, South Orange, N.J., where she is moving Jan. 23. She is an activist against racism and for gay rights, and children’s rights. Trained as an economist, she says she also advocates truth-telling in corporations and social responsibility in investments. Contact 973-763-3754 after Jan. 23 or SandyeA@aol.com.
• J. Lee Grady of Orlando, Fla., is editor of Charisma magazine and author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women: How the Bible Has Been Misused to Keep Women in Spiritual Bondage (Creation House, 2000) and 25 Tough Questions About Women and the Church (Charisma House, 2003). He has been an advocate of women’s leadership in the church. Contact charisma@strang.com.
• James Guth is William R. Kenan Jr. professor of political science at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and is knowledgeable about evangelical clergy’s political involvement. Contact 864-294-2210, jim.guth@furman.edu.
• Rabbi Amy Schwartzman is senior rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va. She has worked with many community organizations, including the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, national and local housing organizations and community AIDS projects. Contact 703-532-2217, Senior.rabbi@TempleRodefShalom.org.
• The Rev. Bernice A. King, an attorney, serves as an elder at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. She is the youngest daughter of Coretta Scott King and the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. She has worked with troubled youth, nonviolent conflict resolution and race relations. She helped organize coalitions to close a pornography shop located within a mile of a high school. Contact her through The King Center at 404-526-8900, communications@thekingcenter.org.
• The Rev. Wilifred “Willie” Allen-Faiella is rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove, Fla. She has worked for gay rights and for AIDS awareness. Contact 305-448-2601, revwaf@aol.com or revwaf@sseds.org.
• The Rev. Donna Schaper is a writer and senior pastor of Coral Gables Congregational in Coral Gables, Fla. She frequently provides commentary for Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer and National Public Radio. She has spoken out against the war in Iraq and the Miami police’s November 2003 handling of protests during the Free Trade Area of the Americas meetings. She also has supported the need for a state income tax in Florida and the consecration in New Hampshire of the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop. Contact 305-448-7421, RevDonnaS@aol.com.
• The Rev. Kim Wells is pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, Fla. She has been involved in the community in the areas of nonviolence, antiwar, social justice, anti-racism, interfaith cooperation, anti-consumerism, and voluntary simplicity. She describes her congregation as a Just Peace church and an Open and Affirming church. Contact 727-867-7961, lucc1@juno.com.
• The Rev. Lisa Hunt is rector of St Ann’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tenn. She serves on the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools board. Read a July 5, 2003, article in the Tennessean. Contact 615-254-3534, office@stannsnashville.org.
• The Rev. Felicia Fontaine of Huntsville, Ala., who is retired from the Metropolitan Community Church denomination, leads Soulforce Alabama, part of a national interfaith movement that promotes the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. She says most of the politically active women clergy she knows are progressives looking for ways to be effective in next year’s election. Contact 256-883-5226, sfal@hiwaay.net.
• The Rev. Ann Deibert is pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Ky. She has spoken out for peace and chaired the former Religious Leaders for Fairness, an interfaith group promoting the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. Contact 502-587-6935, anndeibert@msn.com.
• The Rev. Debra J. Wells is pastor of Riverview United Methodist Church in Brooklyn Park, Minn. She recently ran unsuccessfully for a school board election in her district. She plans to participate in the Wellstone Civic Dialogue Project on Feb. 5, 2004, by holding at least one civic dialogue in the evening and also hopes to hold one in the daytime for clergy. She has served on the Northwest Hennepin Family and Children’s Service advisory board, the Hennepin County Multicultural Advisory Panel and the Northwest Hennepin Family Services Collaborative, governance board. Contact 763-424-2825, pastor@riverviewumc.org.
• The Rev. Kaari M. Reierson of Chicago is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s associate director for studies, the department that formulates the denomination’s social policy. She also edits the Internet publication Journal of Lutheran Ethics, which offers religious perspectives on social issues. Contact 773-380-2894, Kaari_Reierson@elca.org.
• The Rev. Elizabeth Morris Downie is rector of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Fenton, Mich. She is active with Planned Parenthood, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, anti-racism causes and Jubilee USA Network, which promotes cancellation of debts of Third World countries. She says women clergy are more at risk from a conservative backlash, and she considers the uproar in many churches over homosexuality to be closely linked to the reality of women having more power in civil society and the churches. Contact 810-629-0393, edownie@voyager.net.
• John C. Green is a political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio who directs the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. His books include, as co-author, The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (University Press of Kansas, 1998). Contact 330-972-5182, green@uakron.edu.
• The Rev. Angelique Walker-Smith, who is ordained in the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., serves as the executive director of the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis, which has promoted nonviolent response to violence problems in the city. She hosts Faces of Faith on PAX Television Network. Causes with which she is involved include concern about the war on terrorism, the war in the Sudan and environmental stewardship. Contact 317-926-5371, churches@churchfederationindy.org.
• The Rev. Jana L. Norman, who is ordained in the United Church of Christ, is an associate director with the UCC’s Council for Health and Human Services and serves on the board of the Center for Faith-Based Leadership. She has participated in anti-war rallies. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio. She says women clergy are active in issues that are truly on their doorsteps, but some are moving beyond their immediate surroundings. Others, she says, are finding platforms such as magazines and email lists from which to effect broader, more systemic changes. Contact 216-736-2258, normanj@chhsm.org.
• The Rev. Verity Jones of Indianapolis, who is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is editor/publisher of DisciplesWorld magazine. As a pastor in Terre Haute, where Timothy McVeigh was executed for the Oklahoma City bombings, she led a campaign against the death penalty. Contact 317-375-8846, info@disciplesworld.com.
• Denise Ray Mueller of Worthington, Ohio, is a politically active Democrat who has started the discernment process for ordination as an Episcopal deacon. Mueller participates in candidate endorsement boards at the city, county and state level, and is supporting Howard Dean for Democratic candidate for president. She belongs to NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, MoveOn, Emily’s List and – within the national Episcopal Church – Claiming the Blessing, a movement to develop rites for same-gender committed monogamous relationships. Contact 614-848-3249 (home), 614-668-6036 (cell) or deniray@deniray.com.
• Melissa Harris-Lacewell, assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has spoken about connections between theology and black women’s activism. Contact 773-702-8059, mvharris@uchicago.edu.
• Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell has served Calvary Baptist Church in Waco since 1998 and has spoken out about the role of female pastors, particularly in Baptist denominations. When she was elected, she was thought to be the first female senior pastor of a church affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Contact 254-753-6446.
• Rabbi Malka Drucker of Santa Fe, N.M., is the author of White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America (SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2002). She is active with the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders. Contact 505-988-1860, malka@malkadrucker.com.
• Frederick W. Schmidt Jr. is an Episcopal priest and the director of spiritual life and formation and associate professor of Christian spirituality at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. His books include A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination, and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1996). Contact 214-768-2292, fschmidt@mail.smu.edu.
• The Rev. Becky Edmiston-Lange is co-minister of Emerson Unitarian Church in Houston. She has spoken out for abortion rights and has been active with the Interfaith Alliance. Contact 713-782- 8250, office@emersonhou.org.
• Stacy Friedman is senior rabbi at Congregation Rodef Sholom, a large Reform Jewish congregation in San Rafael, Calif., and one of only a few women senior rabbis in the United States. Contact 415-479-3441, stacy@rodefsholom.org.
• Paula D. Nesbitt is an Episcopal priest and a visiting professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, whose expertise includes gender differences in clergy. She is the author of Feminization of the Clergy in America: Occupational and Organizational Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 1997). Read “Women Clergy Research and the Sociology of Religion,” an article by Nesbitt and Adair T. Lummis published in the winter 2002 edition of the quarterly journal Sociology of Religion. Contact 510-652-0888, pnesbitt@uclink.berkeley.edu.
• Starhawk is an author and leader in the modern Pagan religion and Goddess movement who is active in global justice and peace movements. She has helped train protesters. She also works on environmental and land use issues and is a founder and active member of the Cazadero Hills Land Use Council in western Sonoma County. She lives in San Francisco and in Sonoma County, Calif. Contact mer@starhawk.org.
• Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is director of the Center for Women and Religion and assistant professor of theology and womanist studies at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She is ordained in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Contact 510-649-2493, kirkdugg@gtu.edu.
• The Rev. Susan Russell of Pasadena, Calif., is president of Integrity USA, a nonprofit organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Episcopalians. She also is executive director of Claiming the Blessing. Contact 626-583-2740, revsusanrussell@earthlink.net.
• The Rev. Amanda May, an Episcopal priest, is executive director of Episcopal Community Services in San Diego, where she is involved in many local political issues. Her organization is a large government contractor, and its services include AIDS work, homeless housing, Head Start and employment for targeted populations, including ex-offenders. She is also involved in the San Diego Living Wage Campaign. She chairs the national Episcopal Community Services organization, a loose federation of social service providers. Contact 619-260-8100, amayexe@ecscalifornia.org.
• The Rev. Connie Jones is associate rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Anchorage, Alaska. She supports abortion and women’s reproductive health rights and serves on the local Planned Parenthood board. She has participated in anti-war rallies as a member of Episcopal Peace Fellowship. Jones supports the rights of gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgendered people; she has carried the church banner in the local Gay Pride parade and preached in the church on inclusiveness. She is active in a group working for a fair state taxation policy, such as a progressive income tax, and has spoken at rallies in opposition to the death penalty. She says that although it isn’t true across the board, she sees most women entering the clergy as probably more liberal than their male counterparts simply because the women have met opposition from clergy and some congregations. Contact 907-563-3341 ext. 13, connie@godsview.org.
• The Rev. Alison M. Dingley is pastor of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wahiawa, Hawaii. She says she is becoming more active politically this election season than she has for years; she supports the Howard Dean campaign and describes herself as alarmed and outraged at the Bush administration. Dingley’s interests include economic and social justice, peace-making, and – having worked in the substance abuse treatment field for about 20 years – treatment issues, including access to treatment and criminal justice system reform. She says clergywomen are a growing and increasingly diverse group. Dingley expresses particular concern at the disconnect between the religious community and progressive ideas. She belongs to the Interfaith Alliance and supports Sojourners. Contact 808-621-8662, 808-622-5594, or a.dingley@worldnet.att.net.
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