"FIFTY YEARS AND COUNTING"

 “FIFTY YEARS AND COUNTING”

Today’s blog is by Caroline Leach to close out Women’s Herstory Month.

      This year marks the 50th year of my graduation from Columbia Seminary with a Masters of Divinity in 1972.  For some reason some of the guys at Columbia decided I should get a ‘Mistress’ of Divinity---"ha, ha”, they would laugh.  As I think back to the day in September, 1969 when I walked onto campus as a student, I had no idea of the rocky road ahead for me, for the other women there at the time, and for those who came after us.

  My first encounter, thank goodness ,was meeting Dr. Charlie Cousar, Professor of New Testament. I was so glad to see a friendly face.  Charlie’s father had married my parents and baptized me in our home church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I remember his father so fondly, as well as the many members of Central church who peopled my life until I came to Seminary.  I especially give thanks for Rev. Joyce Cummings Tucker and Rev. Sandy Winter.   Charlie, of course, was just a teenager when they moved from Chattanooga, but when I saw him at Columbia, he did remember my parents, for which I was grateful since my dad was ‘letting’ his daughter go into the unknown.  Charlie and Betty became a rock in the midst of the storms in which I would find myself during these seminary years and the many years that followed.

      Those who supported me are legion.  However, the journey was mine alone.  It became very clear - very early - that women were not wanted on campus by the majority of the students and by some of the faculty.  The President even asked me  if I had come to find a husband!  By the time he asked me this question after my first year, I was very emphatic that no man there was on my list of potentials and would never be on any list for that distinction.   

  In the 3 years that followed those first steps, I realized that I would have to make my own way.  Even the very few women on campus---there were 5 when I came—could not envision any other way but the way of ‘man’.   I began to find new language for faith and God and for me.  There are many funny and denigrating stories that can be told.  Needless to say, one of the worst was the day in my final year, when the Placement Director called me into his office and said there would be no job interviews for me or any other  graduating women.  Really I thought---"what about these last 3 years, don’t they count for anything?” Final answer---‘No.’.  I, along with the others,  remained invisible and unemployable.

  So, this brings me to another of those who just gained their sainthood.  Rev. Woody McKay died earlier this month.  He was the only one who even spoke with me about a job---I did not call it a “call”---in those last months of panic before graduation.  Woody was the Campus Minister at Georgia Tech.  I had met him at a youth group event at Decatur Presbyterian church during that year.  I went down to visit with him at his office at Tech one afternoon. He told me he had saved $7,000 in his budget, and he was looking for a woman who would minister with the growing number of women on campus---all 500 at that time in 1972.  Would I be interested? “Of course!” was my reply.   Because of his bravery, I had a job and could be ordained!  There is a story about all that as well, but for another time.  Over the years I was so grateful when I would see Woody and be able to tell how again much I appreciated his willingness to give me a chance to practice ministry in this most unusual of places.  He is remembered by many students for his kindness and awful jokes.  I say "Well done good and faithful servant.”

  Fifty years have not passed quickly nor easily for women in ministry.  We have persisted under the worst sort of scrutiny and prejudice, but we have persisted.  We have been viewed as nothing short of witches and upstarts.  But we have been - and we remain – in ministry for those on the margins and the mainlines, saying as often as possible—“You are a child of God and a first class citizen, deserving all the rights and privileges.”  Thanks be to God,  Caroline