Devotional: Women and Church Leadership

Dear God of Justice and Restoration, In 1853, Antoinette Brown Blackwell stood before her congregation in South Butler, New York — the first woman ordained by a mainstream Protestant denomination in America. Her hands trembled. The pews held both allies and skeptics. And yet, the prophet Amos had already spoken: "Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream."…