Here’s how A Marginal Majority came to be. There are several of us who research women in Baptist history. We enter from different points, but we gravitate particularly around Baptist women: what they believe, how they behave, how they adapt, how they organize, and how they think. In the summer of 2013, we gathered in Eugene, Oregon […]
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“Oh Freedom” Reimagined, by Vontril and Alexandria McLemore and Jann Aldredge-Clanton
One of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a ministry partner at The Gathering, A Womanist Church is forming a friendship with Vontril and Alexandria McLemore. Also ministry partners, they move and delight me and many others with their beautiful duets and their singing in The Gathering choir. I’ve also had the joy of […]
“Hear Sophia Call” Video
Growing up in an evangelical church, I learned the song “Jesus Is Tenderly Calling.” We usually sang it at the end of worship services for the invitation to salvation. Later, I discovered the connection between Jesus and Sophia (“Wisdom” in the Greek Christian Scriptures). Now I hear Sophia calling us to join Her paths of […]
I Wish Someone Had told Me: Equity for Women in the Church, Edited by Rev. Dr. Alfie Wines
“We’ve already done that,” people often say when I mention that I’m working on equity for clergywomen. “We’ve been ordaining women for decades, and we see women in the pulpit.” Although it is true that many denominations have been ordaining women since the 1950s and 60s, that some churches have been calling them to pastoral […]
“Were You There” Reimagined, by Vontril and Alexandria McLemore
Vontril and Alexandria McLemore, ministry partners of The Gathering, A Womanist Church, created timely new lyrics to the traditional African American spiritual “Were You There.” These lyrics take on urgent meaning during the current trial of the man who murdered George Floyd. These compelling lyrics remind us of the unspeakable violence against Black people since […]