A Life-Long Dream By Rev. Mary Karen Brown
“ I believe that the denominations that ordain women have been enriched by the unique perspectives that women can bring to churches through their callings into ministry.”
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t 86 years of age and as a retired United Methodist minister, looking back over my life I realize that my desire to become a minister emerged in my young childhood. My parents, sister, and I attended the Beverly Vista Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles where Dr. James Stewart had been a beloved pastor for many years. Dr. Stewart had three grown children, two sons, one of whom was a minister, and a daughter with two children. Although I enjoyed Sunday school, I liked being in the church service even better. I enjoyed singing the hymns, listening to the choir sing its anthem, but most of all listening to the sermon. I thought to myself, “What a joy it would be to tell people about God’s love.” One Easter Sunday, Dr. Stewart revealed in his sermon that his daughter had died the night before from cancer. I don’t remember what he said in that sermon, but I just remember feeling that he had such a powerful faith that God would comfort him in this time of great loss. It was this experience that solidified my desire to become a minister. Each week we repeated the Nicene Creed during the service. As I grew older, I wasn’t sure I believed every part of this creed, but I didn’t express my doubts to anyone. However, in high school, one of my best friends invited me to attend a United Methodist camp with her that summer. I had a great time! As I learned more about John Wesley’s theology, I learned about the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which simply means that there are four aspects to Christian faith: the Bible, tradition, reason and experience. In other words, one’s faith is a combination of the Bible stories we learn from the Old
Rev. Mary Karen Brown, Easter Service
and New Testament, the traditions of the church we are attending, our own personal experience, and finally, our acceptance of this faith as reasonable. Wesley also believed that there was no exact creed that one had to accept to become a member of a given denomination because the mystery of Christ was not reducible to a given set of words. Creeds were attempts to express the essence of the Christ mystery in words, but no set of words could definitely express this mystery. So though I was excited to learn about the Wesleyan quadrilateral, I sort of put my desire to be a minister in my back pocket, so to speak. After high school, I attended Stanford University majoring in drama with a minor in Humanities. After college, I worked for three years in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at UCLA. Next I went to San Francisco State College to work towards a master’s degree in Radio, TV, & Film. Then, one weekend, I met William Brown on a Sierra Club hike. He was working towards a PhD in Anthropology at the
University of Utah. Once William and I were married, we started attending the Wallingford United Methodist Church, which had a pastor just out of seminary, Becky Parker. Becky was an inspirational preacher and resurrected my desire to become a minister. Becky was my mentor for three years, when I considered applying to the Claremont School of Theology. I listed the pros and cons of this decision and finally decided that whether I succeeded or failed in my aspirations to become a minister, God would journey with me. So I applied to seminary in 1986, was accepted, graduated in 1989, went through the ordination process and was appointed pastor of the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church (SUMC) in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church in July 1990. I was pastor at this church until I retired in July of 2000. Despite all the vicissitudes of this world, joys and sorrows, nothing in life is more wonderful than being part of a community of hope and journeying with God. It is more wonderful than feeling that you don’t need anything more than your own wit, skills or tenacity. There were many wonderful people of hope at the SUMC who strengthened my faith! I was the first woman pastor at this church. After a period of the congregation getting used to having a woman as pastor, I was accepted. At least the parishioners didn’t ask the bishop to move me, and I stayed until I retired! Each woman pastor brings a different personality and set of skills to her ministry, just as men do to theirs. But I believe that the denominations that ordain women have been enriched by the unique perspectives that women can bring to churches through their callings into ministry. Both male and female pastors can enrich the ministry of a congregation. Therefore, I am so thankful that God finally led me through all the twists and turns of my life to achieve my childhood desire to become a minister! Rev. Mary Karen Brown served as pastor of the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church from 1990-2000. A M at t e r o f S p i r it
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