When many of you joined the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Fairport 25 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60+ years ago it was a very different world
It was a very different church
things change— even if we don’t realize it
In our Gospel reading from John
The disciples find fish on the other side of the boat
there is something for us here
Life is about changing the way we do things—over and over
we can get used to casting our nets on this or that side of the boat
Jesus calls us out of our comfort zones— we need to listen and act in new ways…be open to new ways of doing things
When the disciples listened
when they went to the trouble of dragging in their nets and then tossing them on the other side— they caught so many fish they couldn’t bring them onto their boat
the nets didn't tear—- they held the catch— resistance can cause the nets to tear
there was a time not that long ago that women could not vote or own property— women could not preach
when slavery was a legal practice
Sometimes there are agents of change… like
Antoinette Louisa Brown who was born in Henrietta, New York on May 20, 1825, to Joseph and Abby Morse Brown.
Brown's parents were very religious and they were inspired by the many revivals in upstate New York during the Second Great Awakening.
One Sunday when Antoinette was eight, a visiting preacher challenged the church to give their lives to God.
The following week Antoinette told her Sunday School teacher that she wanted to be a minister.
The teacher firmly cautioned her that girls could not be ministers.
At sixteen, after completing her schooling at Monroe County Academy (1838-1840), Brown became a schoolteacher.
Nette was not content with teaching and soon set her sights on a college degree.
Four years later, she had saved enough for her tuition.
In 1846 Brown enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio..
A year later she received a literary degree (the prescribed course for women students), and she requested to be admitted to the theology department to train for the ministry.
Oberlin supported education for women, but not theological training.
She was adamant and finally, they allowed her to attend lectures.
While she was at Oberlin, Brown became increasingly involved in the social justice issues of her day…women’s rights, temperance and the anti-slavery movement.
Despite resistance, in 1847 Brown delivered several speeches on temperance in Ohio, and lectured about women's rights in Henrietta.
During the three years she was studying theology she was constantly reminded by both faculty and fellow students that the Bible did not approve of women speaking in church.
She even had to get special permission to speak in class in order to present her essays.
In one of these essays Brown claimed that, in asking women to be silent in church, St. Paul meant only to warn against excesses in public worship.
Nette insisted that what Bible said about women was not applicable to those living in the 19th century.
She was an early feminist theologian.
In 1850, Antoinette Brown completed her theological studies but was not given a degree in theology or a license to preach.
She put her ministerial ambitions on hold, traveling to Worcester, Massachusetts (where I was yesterday for the bridal shower for my son’s fiancé), to attend the first National Women's Rights Convention,
Antoinette gave a well received speech
This began her career as an independent lecturer taking her to Pennsylvania, Ohio and New England —to speak on social reform issues, and preach on Sundays by invitation.
After several denied requests the Congregational church finally gave Brown a license to preach in 1852, but she was not ordained.
In the fall of 1852 Brown was invited to serve as minister for the Congregational Church in rural South Butler, New York.
She accepted the call.
Because the Congregational clergy wouldn't ordain a woman, on September 15, 1853 a 28 yo Brown was ordained by a Methodist minister — Luther Lee, a advocate for theological education and leadership for women.
This made her the first woman ordained by a regular Protestant denomination in the United States.
Antoinette Brown entered her ministry with enthusiasm.
she wrote "The pastoral labors at S. Butler suit me even better than I expected and my heart is full of hope."
Soon thereafter she officiated the first wedding performed by a woman minister-in Rochester.
Chosen by her church as a delegate to the 1853 World's Temperance Convention, Brown became the center of controversy, when fellow delegates received her credentials but shouted her off the platform, refusing to permit a woman to speak.
Brown was also unprepared for the openly critical attitudes of women in her parish.
Her friends in the women's rights movement - Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony -thought she was wasting her time.
Brown had little support which led to an emotional faith crisis.
So after just ten months, she resigned from the South Butler church.
It would be ten years before another woman was ordained.
After some recuperation on the family's farm in Henrietta Susan B Anthony encouraged her to help with the campaign for women's right to own property in New York State.
She began lecturing again.
Brown continued to believe that women's active participation in religion could serve to further their status in society.
She met and married Samuel Charles Blackwell
Together they raised 5 daughters— who grew to be a minister, 2 doctors and an artist
She continued to write and speak out for an end to slavery, women’s rights Antoinette was one of the only women from that first Women’s Rights gathering who lived long enough to cast her vote in 1920
She died in 1921.
Antoinette was a leader for change… she looked for new directions
she cast her net on the other side of the boat and we have all benefited
I pray we can follow her lead here in Fairport as Jesus calls us to to feed his sheep, all of his sheep. Amen
