I simply share comments, heard repeatedly, in too many places for way too long.
"We have had wonderful leadership by men, but will you send us a woman this time?"
"We have done that. We once had a male pastor. It will not work here."
"How can he do the job of a pastor while being a dad?"
"We have special worship services with our neighbors in other traditions, and they do not accept male pastors."
"Why are you sending us two clergymen in a row?"
"We hope our next pastor will have a husband and children who will be active in our church."
"It seems odd to have two men in leadership - a male lead pastor and a male associate pastor."
I confess. I changed the gender. We grin because the questions sound odd, or we laugh because we have been caught in the hard place between the distancing words and our call to ministry.
I was 5 years old in 1956, the year women were granted full clergy rights by my church. It took 15 years for this news to reach me. As a result, my own call to ordained ministry was clouded by unknowing and absence of mentoring. I yearn for women as well as men to be awake and alert to the beckoning grace of God who calls.
Each Advent, I have fun hosting an open house for clergywomen in our conference. We celebrate the annunciation with laughter, comradeship and deep joy. I open the episcopal residence to clergywomen as my witness of support for the clergy among us who have a more challenging path simply because they are women.
I am told a few clergymen have asked in good humor when I will host an open house for them. I want to support my brothers in ministry in every way possible. I enjoy their companionship in ministry immensely.
I hope the shared comments-gender-reversed are never uttered, but if they are uttered, an open house for clergymen will be planned immediately. I wait for the end of wounding resistance to women in ministry and to lay women in vocational and public roles. We yearn together for welcome, encouragement and support for all laity and clergy who are called to share in Christ's mission.
Sixty years have passed, and we are not there yet.
A native North Carolinian, she was raised on the Morgan family farm in northeastern North Carolina in the community of Corapeake. Her home church, Parkers United Methodist Church, is on a three point charge. Morgan attended Duke University and Duke Divinity School. She met her spouse, Mike, on a volunteer in mission workteam to Bolivia in 1975. They were married in 1977. Together they served as teaching parents at the Methodist Home for Children in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has served as a youth director, Christian educator, pastor, Director of Connectional Ministries and district superintendent in the NC Conference. She was elected to the Episcopacy in July, 2004 and assigned to the Mississippi Conference in 2004 and 2008. She is now back home serving as bishop for the North Carolina Annual Conference