There were no rules for how a 25-year-old female minister should dress or act when the Rev. Margaret E. Howland was ordained as a Presbyterian minister 50 years ago this month.She wore black because that's what the men wore.
She spent two hours every Sunday morning washing and setting her hair, hoping that her curls would look like everyone else's and not serve as a distraction.
She wasn't sure if men should open doors for her or help her on with her coat. So she weighed each situation as it came up.
The 12th woman to be ordained a Presbyterian minister knew that she was a curiosity, a mysterious figure, and that she would have to take all reactions in stride. When she went to visit a patient in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where she first served as an assistant minister, she entered a hospital room to roars of laughter.
"The front desk had called them and said, 'There is a woman coming up who says she's your minister,'" Howland remembered. "If I didn't think that God was leading me, I couldn't have put up with all that stuff."
This afternoon, Presbyterians from across New York and the country will come to the Presbyterian Church of White Plains to honor Howland for putting up with all of it and flourishing. They'll celebrate the example she set for female ministers at a time when she had no role models and the "women's liberation" movement was still a decade away. And they'll note the work she continues to do, including as past president of the International Association of Women Ministers.
"As I traveled across the country, I learned that everyone knows Peggy Howland," said Rick Ufford-Chase, who served as national moderator of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from 2004 to 2006 and has worked with Howland for many years on "peace" issues. "She has been tireless in her ability to network, pursue peace-making and keep doors open for women."
When Howland was growing up in Philadelphia, becoming a minister was the furthest thing from her mind.
"I had never heard of a woman minister," said Howland, now 75, a Yonkers resident who retired from full-time ministry in 1998. "I didn't know if I would like a woman minister. It was outside my realm of thinking."
She attended the University of Pennsylvania, figuring she would earn a doctorate in biblical studies and then go overseas as a missionary. That was something that committed female Christians could do.
But a university chaplain suggested ministry. The nation's booming mainline churches were desperate for ministers, and women would be accepted eventually. A fellowship was available at Princeton Seminary, a Presbyterian training ground for clergy.
In 1956, the same year that the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. - then the main northern Presbyterian denomination - approved the ordination of women, Howland finished her first year of seminary and spent the summer at a church in British Columbia.
"Even when I finished the first year, I couldn't see myself as a minister," Howland said. "But the first time I preached on a Sunday morning, in British Columbia, I really, truly believed that it was God's idea that I be a minister. I realized, 'This is where I belong. This is what God has been leading me to do.'"
She was ordained on Oct. 19, 1958. A New York Times headline the next day read: "Presbyterian Church Gets Woman Minister."
Howland was keenly aware of how alone she was. The Methodist Church in America had just started ordaining female ministers in 1956. The Lutheran Church in America would not start until 1970 and the Episcopal Church until 1976.
After Howland spent several years at churches in Bay Ridge and Wayne, N.J., and earned a master's degree, she decided she was ready to be a pastor. She was offered many assistant pastor jobs, but couldn't get an interview for a top post.
She worked a series of part-time jobs from 1966 to 1968, waiting.
"It was hard on my psyche," she said.
Then she got a break. Woodside Presbyterian Church in Troy, N.Y., which had a vacancy, named a new chairman for its nominating committee, a fellow who managed a Ford Motor plant. He had just returned from a conference where managers were told to start looking for talented female employees.
Howland got an interview, a try-out and, on the day the Jets won Super Bowl III, was installed as the first female pastor of a Presbyterian church with more than 200 people (it had 208).
She stayed in Troy for a decade, then served as pastor of Nauraushaun Presbyterian Church in Pearl River for three years and as pastor of South Presbyterian Church in Yonkers for almost 20 years before her retirement.
"She had a love for people," said Lois Morgante, a member of South Presbyterian during Howland's time there. "She felt their sorrows and shared in their woes. She gave of herself above and beyond the call of duty. Her quiet patience, warmth and friendly nature endeared her to all of us."
Looking back, Howland says that she had a lot of lessons to learn.
She had accepted, for one thing, the conventional wisdom among male ministers that female ministers had to be perfect.
"I made the mistake of believing the superwoman thing," she said. "You always think you have to do things better and be perfect. It took its toll. Thank God, I finally learned that I could ask God for help."
Male ministers had a hard time accepting women, she said.
"I came to understand that men included their work, their profession, as part of what it means to be masculine," she said. "Men thought the ministry was masculine. Women don't think of their profession as being part of their femininity."
Congregants could be won over. She learned this during her first summer in Bay Ridge, when she had to lead six funerals.
"Lay people heard me preach, saw me administer the sacraments, came to my funerals, came to my weddings," she said. "They saw what I could do."
As a leader of the International Association of Women Ministers, Howland has continued to advocate for the needs of female clergy - as she sees them.
In 2006, she took part in the first "ordination" of female priests for the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The Catholic Church, which does not ordain women, does not recognize the ceremonies and has been highly critical of those who participate.
She is also a board member of the New York Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and an active advocate for abortion rights since before Roe v. Wade.
"It's not that we're in favor of widespread abortions," she said. "The only way to get rid of illegal abortions is is to have safe, legal abortions. It has to do with women's health and with women as moral agents being able to make their own decisions."
Today, Howland pursues her passions - peace-making, scuba diving and underwater photography, among them. And she is overjoyed by the influence and creativity of female ministers across denominational lines.
"I consider myself a drop of water that has become a river," she said. "We're going to celebrate the river on Sunday afternoon."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: LHC)