The road for women wanting to be preachers in the black church has been difficult, to say the least. Yet, black women are slowly rising to leadership roles in one of the black community's oldest and most revered institutions. Some arrive in the traditional way -- called by churches -- while others are starting their own churches.
Acceptance has been slow in coming in the traditional black enclaves of east Pasco County, but women now account for about 25 percent of the preachers in black churches.
The first sign of change came in the mid-1950s, when a flamboyant seasonal evangelist, known as Father Roberts, ordained Flowers Hanner as a minister in his Royal Priesthood denomination. Hanner eventually opened her own church, St. Peter's Apostolic Church in Dade City that her son, William Hanner, later reorganized as At the Church of the Living Christ. Before "Mother Hanner," as she was affectionately known, died in the early 1980s, she was an example for other women who considered accepting a call into ministry.
In the early days, black female ministers faced a stigma. They were perceived as extremists, religious fanatics, oddballs.
Bishop Ethel Smith, founder and pastor of St. Luke Church of God Apostolic Faith in Dade City, focused on what she knew to be true.
"I did not have any doubts about my calling. It had been prophesied that I would become a pastor," said Smith, who was ordained in the early 1960s and opened the church in her kitchen a couple of years later.
By Imani Asukile
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