Religious Science Upholds Rich Tradition of Women in Clergy

Women ministers are a steadily growing minority in mainline churches, but the recent election of a woman pastor from Glendale as president of Religious Science International illustrates that there is at least one spiritual movement in which ordained women outnumber men.

Female clergy are so common in Religious Science, in fact, that when the Rev. Arleen Bump was asked after her election whether women were a majority among clergy in her wing of the movement, she said she had no idea.

“I’m very conscious of the excellence of individuals--not whether they are a man or a woman,” said Bump, who is pastor of the Glendale Church of Religious Science.

In fact, ordained women predominate in the relatively small Religious Science International--not only in overall totals but also as senior pastors of congregations, outnumbering male pastors 47 to 40 in North America, according to the denomination’s directory.

Women clergy also are “a slight majority” in the larger sister denomination, the United Church of Religious Science, according to the Rev. J. Robert Gale, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based denomination, which has 185 U.S. and Canadian congregations.

The two denominations went separate ways in 1954 after a split in their then-5-year-old movement. However, both follow the “Science of Mind” teachings of founder Ernest Holmes and have amicable relations.

Religious Science is a metaphysical religion that places a strong emphasis on positive thinking for healing and well-being, but also accepts a role for medical science. “We believe in the unity of all life, and that the highest God and the innermost God is one God,” says one statement of its beliefs.

Religious Science, the Unity church movement and numerous independent congregations fall under the umbrella of the New Thought movement, which dates back to the 1800s. The much larger Christian Science Church, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, is usually regarded as a spiritual cousin to New Thought.

The Religious Science movement, like its New Thought relatives, has never barred women from the ordained ministry.

Indeed, Bump said she is the third woman president of Religious Science International and its predecessor body, the International Assn. of Religious Science Churches. The first was the Rev. Lora Holman, once pastor of the Glendale congregation.

With Bump’s election, women now head both Religious Science International and the United Church for the first time. The Rev. Ruth Deaton of Prescott, Ariz., is president of the United Church, having succeeded that denomination’s first woman president, the Rev. Peggy Bassett of Huntington Beach.

Bump, however, said the presidency carries more authority in her Spokane, Wash.-based denomination, which has no executive officer. “We have a working board of directors with each of the 19 trustees serving on at least one committee,” she said.

She said her goal--”that this religion may spread”--is to increase the numbers of professionally trained ministers and to grow beyond its present 92 churches and 13 budding churches called societies.

Religious Science International is looking for new members in the so-called unchurched population, typically attracting people who have been unsatisfied with more conventional churches. “By the time people come here,” she said, “they’ve looked at other churches.”

But with its upbeat message and non-dogmatic beliefs, why hasn’t the denomination grown a lot faster?

One problem, Bump said, “is that some people who try Religious Science come in thinking that it’s almost like magic--just think positive! It takes work and learning responsibility.”

Some churchgoers do not face obstacles realistically, she said. “You have to take action to back up what you pray about.”

Pastors in Religious Science also have to be responsible stewards of church money, she said. “This is a church, but it is also a business; you cannot separate the two.”

The Glendale church, which has 300 to 400 people attending its 10 a.m. Sunday service, is now raising funds for a $60,000 roof replacement and renovation of its building at 2146 Chevy Chase Drive.

The building, which has sanctuary beams rising in converging curves to a point above large stained-glass windows, was designed by Pasadena church architect Howard Van Heuklyn and completed in 1964. Now retired and a member of the congregation, Van Heuklyn is directing the renovation plans.

Bump, who turns 55 next month and most recently served a Calgary church, was appointed pastor last December. She said the Glendale congregation, for years the bailiwick of the Rev. Leo Fishbeck, had been through a difficult six-month period mourning the unexpected death of its latest pastor, the Rev. Helen Street.

As a symbol of its revitalization, the congregation is now illuminating nightly a large, 250-light star that stands on a hill behind the church and is visible to motorists on the nearby Glendale Freeway. The star, though somewhat obscured by freeway walls, had been left unlit for about two years before she came.