Given by Rev. Madison Shockley August 16, 2020
This is a week that women made history. Paul wrote about women leaders in the early church. In this reading, Paul is asking that Phoebe be accepted and treated as an equal. Unfortunately, women are still barred from holding leadership positions in many churches today. What happened between Phoebe and now? In Paul’s time, churches were in households. Many women were the head of the household therefore they were the leader of that church. Then things changed. Women were considered too weak to be leaders. On September 15, 1853, Antoinette Brown was the first woman ordained in the Congregational Church in New York. She was a pioneer. Today, we have come a long way but there is still work to be done. A woman’s place is any place she wants to be. Be a part of history.
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