Today in the Mission Yearbook - When culture is a roadblock

Korean clergywomen find ways to serve

January 23, 2021

The Rev. Evelyn Chang is the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in the Bronx, N.Y. The Korean immigrant church opened its doors in 1997 and became a PC(USA)-affiliated church in the early 2000s. Courtesy of Presbyterian Mission Agency

It’s 2021, and women in the pulpit are not an unusual sight in many churches across the country. A 2018 study conducted by Eileen Campbell-Reed titled “State of Clergywomen in the U.S.: A Statistical Update” revealed some interesting facts about clergywomen in the U.S.; among them was that in most mainline denominations, the percentage of clergywomen has doubled or tripled since 1994. Still, while more women have the title “Rev.” in front of their names, obstacles while on the road to ordination, and even when serving in church, remain. Among those obstacles is the still pervasive problem of gender discrimination.

In 2016, the “Gender and Leadership in the PC(USA)” report, conducted in partnership with Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Study on the Status of Women Team, found that eight out of 10 female teaching elders have experienced discrimination, harassment, and/or prejudicial comments due to their gender, and four out of 10 felt that they have experienced gender bias in hiring, promotion or selection for an official position within the denomination. Among the members of the church at large, 59% of women and 52% of men agree with the statement that “gender inequality is still a problem in the PC(USA).”

When survey participants were asked what type of leadership role they held, more men than women said they held an official leadership role as opposed to an unofficial role.

So what role are ordained Korean females playing in serving and guiding churches?

The Rev. Evelyn Chang is the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in the Bronx, New York. The Korean immigrant church opened its doors in 1997 and became a PC(USA)-affiliated church in the early 2000s. The church has remained in the community, but today very few of the members of the congregation are Korean.

Her ministry mainly serves Hispanics after most Koreans who initially attended the church moved to the suburbs. “More and more Hispanic high school students began coming to the church in the mid-2000s,” said Chang. “We started feeding and evangelizing the students.”

Chang recalled her journey to ordination. “My professor at the Alliance Theological Seminary challenged me to go to China, where there were many female ministers,” she said. “Many of the women in China are pastors of house churches. After returning from China, I went to Ramah Naioth Retreat Center in upstate New York to discern my ordination.” At that time, Chang said she had neither known nor seen any female pastors around her.

She said, “One evening when I went to the cafeteria for dinner, there was no one except one Baptist minister who happened to be there for prayer. I didn’t say anything, but he talked about his thoughts against the ordination of women out of the blue. Every single Bible quotation he referred to was not a biblical understanding about the ordination of women.”

Two decades later, Chang still finds it humorous that God used a male pastor to convince her even more of her call to be ordained. She found her way to the Bronx church because no one wanted to serve in the “so-called ghetto city.”

“I ended up becoming a lead pastor in 2006, after serving as an assistant pastor for nine years,” said Chang. And while not serving a Korean church, Chang has found her work rewarding, seeing so many young people being baptized in the faith and prepared to begin their lives with the Word of God.

“We’ve helped many of them with the necessary steps to enter college, and some of the students became couples and have been married,” she said, adding that while it is hard for one church to have two different cultural backgrounds, “we do our best to be united.” Chang has high hopes for the church’s future as well. “Our church is small in numbers, but I still have hope for our church to baptize more people and make disciples in the years to come.”

Gail Strange, Director of Church and Mid Council Communications for the Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Becky Burton, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Kelly Cahill, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

God of abundance, remind us that we never give from scarcity but out of the abundance you have first shared with us. Show us the ways your gifts multiply to meet the need in our midst — and still leave us with abundance left over! Amen.

‘When America gets a cold, the African American community gets pneumonia’

COVID-19’s impact on black Presbyterian churches

by Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service

Through the leadership of the Rev. Wayne Steele, Peace Presbyterian Church is very active in the Newburg community in Louisville and Mid-Kentucky Presbytery. (Contributed photo)

LOUISVILLE — It is said, “When America gets a cold, the African American community gets pneumonia.”

The COVID-19 pandemic is proving that to be true. As the virus spreads across the country, it appears that it is impacting African Americans at a disproportionally high rate. In hot spots like New York, Detroit, New Orleans, and Chicago, blacks are dying at alarmingly high rates.

According to APM Research Lab, as of Monday more than 23,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. Data about the racial background of those who died was available for only 35% of all deaths.

While black Americans represent 13% of those living in places releasing data by race, they have suffered 32% of all known COVID-19 deaths in those places.

APM’s research further showed that:

• Dramatic inequities exist in numerous places across the Midwest: In Wisconsin, blacks are 5.5 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than their population share, followed by Michigan, 3.6 times more likely, and in Illinois, 3.3 times more likely. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, the ratio is 2.4, while it’s 2.3 in Chicago and 2.0 in Louisiana.
• Of the 12 states and four localities examined, Minnesota is the only one that does not see a disproportionate mortality burden for its black residents.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to expose disparities and inequities in the nation’s health care system and socioeconomic status, but it also shines a spotlight on systemic racism and poverty̶̶, two issues that have plagued this country for centuries.

The coronavirus crisis is impacting every aspect of the black community including the church.  For African Americans the church has been an integral part of life for centuries. The church has been key for American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) through the inhumane treatment of slavery to Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. ADOS have relied on their faith and their church to sustain them in perilous times.

Now in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation, how is the black Presbyterian church faring?

The Rev. Wayne Steele, Jr. is the pastor of Peace Presbyterian Church, a church with nearly 100 members in Louisville, Kentucky. Steele has been the pastor for 20 of the 60 years of the church’s existence. “For our African American churches, we don’t have money that’s stored up,” Steele said. “We don’t have nice endowments set aside for rainy days.”

“It’s nice that the government, the church, the presbyteries and the synods are giving loans, but the truth of the matter is with the bottom line that many churches have right now, it’s going to be difficult to pay back a loan to help us survive right now,” he said.

“I’m very concerned that for a lot of our African American pastors, this calling that we have, is our only source of income,” he said. “This is our full-time job.”

Peace Church live streams on Sunday morning. “Thanks be to God,” Steele said, that the church had started online giving before the pandemic. “For the African American community, online giving is a new way of giving to the church and we don’t often gravitate to change as quickly as others, so this becomes a new process,” he said.  The age of the congregation also impacts online giving, he said. While many African American churches have young adults familiar with technology, it’s the senior citizens that carry the church financially.

“Last week we mailed all members a personal letter talking about the love Jesus,” he said. “Not only did we talk about their spiritual responsibility to the church, but their financial responsibility as well.”

An offering envelope was enclosed with the letter. “Hopefully they will take advantage of that,” he said.  “I’ve heard some good positive responses from members promising to mail their contributions.” The church is open on Mondays and has made accommodations for members to drop a check off while practicing social distancing.

For now, the congregation has decided to maintain the staff for April but will be assessing that situation every month. And while finances may be an issue, Peace Presbyterian continues to serve its members and the community. Currently the church offers online Bible study and is exploring opportunities to offer online youth ministries. Additionally, the church continues to serve the community through its food pantry ministry.