Placement as Pastors Takes Women Longer, Study Finds

Seminary-trained women seeking their first jobs as pastors in the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination usually wait twice as long as men fresh from the seminary, according to a study presented Friday to bishops of the 5.2-million-member church.

The survey of nearly 1,700 women clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America found that they wait an average of more than six months for placement, compared to about 3 1/2 months for their male counterparts.

Gender wasn’t the only drawback, the study concluded. Older seminary graduates--male or female--starting a second career also wait longer for an invitation from a church with a vacancy, said the report.

But the age problem has affected Lutheran women (who make up 13% of the church’s clergy ranks) more than men, the survey found. The average age of women at their ordination was 35, whereas 29 was the average for men.

“It is really a double whammy,” said the Rev. Janice Erickson-Pearson of Chicago, who co-authored the study. She discussed the report late Friday with more than 60 bishops who opened a six-day, semiannual meeting Thursday night at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel.

Although the doors first opened in 1970 for women’s ordination in some Lutheran churches, women clergy say many church members still resist the notion of a woman in the pulpit--especially if they have never experienced women in that role.

The Rev. Ann Tiemeyer of New York City, who chairs the denomination’s Commission for Women, a sponsor of the study, said that some parishioners at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Van Nuys opposed her when she began a 2 1/2-year pastorate there in late 1993.

“There are still congregations that have never heard a woman preach, even as a guest minister, or seen them do the things that pastors do,” said Tiemeyer, who left for New York when she married.

But before leaving the small Van Nuys parish, Tiemeyer said, “Most of the people who were initially hesitant about a woman pastor wound up being my strongest supporters.”

The Rev. Cynde Manion, ordained 14 years ago and pastor since 1994 of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Woodland Hills, initially encountered similar hesitation and misgivings at St. Luke. Now, however, her church enjoys an average Sunday attendance of 150 parishioners, one of the larger Lutheran churches in the San Fernando Valley.

“Unfortunately, the number of women [clergy] in our Los Angeles-based synod [region] has decreased in the last decade rather than increased,” Manion said.

The problem that second-career ministers--regardless of gender--have in receiving that first pastoral post was demonstrated in her congregation, Manion said.

A male church member who left his career as a construction firm executive to enter a seminary had to wait nine months for a position with a church in Northern California, she said. “What is hard is that most entry-level positions are as an assistant pastor or pastor of a very small congregation, neither of which pay very much,” Manion said.

“He is going to get a lot less money than he used to make,” she said.

Exceptions occur. The Rev. Margie Olson, pastor of the small Epiphany Lutheran Church in Canoga Park, said that she was 65 when she graduated and was called to the church on the day she graduated. Olson, who had retired after 15 years as a public health nurse, was willing to serve “a congregation that couldn’t afford a more experienced person,” she said.

Some encouraging words were also contained in the report on women pastors.

Virtually all clergywomen in the survey have served at least some time in a congregation, due to a requirement by the Chicago-based church body that its fledgling ministers serve a local parish before taking a specialized ministry, such as teaching, chaplaincy, or administrative or urban mission work.

“Other Protestant denominations in the U.S. report that a majority of their clergywomen are serving and have served in non-parish settings,” said the report written by Erickson-Pearson with Martin Smith.

The requirement for parish service “increases the impact of clergywomen on the whole church and provides vital preparation to significant numbers of women who may take up leadership roles,” the study said.

The coauthors said that later reports using data from the survey will show that more women than men have served in part-time posts and more women than men clergy have taken leaves of absence.

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“Analysis suggests that this is not all bad news,” the report said. Many female and some male clergy choose to work part-time, sometimes to care for family. Their needs may actually coincide with congregations unable to afford a full-time pastor or those churches wanting an interim pastor, according to the study.

The researchers also found that seminary graduates tended to wait longer for pastor posts when they declined to move to certain areas or had spousal considerations. Even here, however, women candidates had longer waits than men, the study said.

Women clergy are more likely than male ministers to have experienced “gender-based discrimination or harassment” in work settings, the report said, but the coauthors said that issue would be detailed in a future study.