NEWS STORY: Prominent gospel singer breaks tradition, ordains sister

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Famed gospel singer and pastor Andrae Crouch and his twin sister, the new Elder Sandra Crouch, hope her ordination by him Saturday (Aug. 1) will push their denomination, the Church of God in Christ, closer to dropping its ban on ordained women pastors.”I believe that when you have […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Famed gospel singer and pastor Andrae Crouch and his twin sister, the new Elder Sandra Crouch, hope her ordination by him Saturday (Aug. 1) will push their denomination, the Church of God in Christ, closer to dropping its ban on ordained women pastors.”I believe that when you have a sense within yourself that God is calling you to work in a particular part of the ministry, that no matter what gender you are, you should be able to answer that call,”Sandra Crouch said in an interview Tuesday (Aug. 4).”You don’t get a driver’s license to learn how to drive. You get a license because you know how to drive.” Her brother, a multi-Grammy Award winner, named her assistant pastor in 1997 and views giving her credentials as”nothing but fair.”Sandra Crouch, who also has won a Grammy for a gospel album, is now co-pastor of their New Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ in Pacoima, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles.”I just believe that God’s agenda has no gender,”said Andrae Crouch.

He became pastor of the church in 1995 after the deaths of his father and brother, the founding and subsequent leaders of the congregation with more than 800 members.


Sandra Crouch described the three-hour, music-filled ordination service that drew close to 1,000 people as a”very, very joyous occasion.”Andrae Crouch’s supervisory bishop declared the event unofficial.”It’s not effective in the Church of God in Christ,”said Bishop J. Bernard Hackworth of the denomination’s Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Southern California.”It’s just something he’s done in his local church, but the Church of God in Christ hasn’t approved … women as ordained elders. Our constitution doesn’t call for it and I’m going to stand by our constitution.” In ordaining his sister, Crouch actually broke two traditions of the nation’s largest black Pentecostal denomination, which has been estimated to have as many as 8.5 million members worldwide. Not only are women usually not ordained as pastors, pastors do not have the authority to ordain.”Can’t nobody ordain anyone in the jurisdiction but me, the bishop,”said Hackworth of Los Angeles.

The Rev. Robert Franklin, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, however, said there has been a”growing threshold of tolerance”for increasing women’s leadership roles in the denomination.”Once the camel’s nose is in the tent, you don’t stop it,”he said.

Franklin, who is a COGIC member, said women have been ordained for specific ministries, such as chaplaincies, but the pastorate has officially remained off-limits.

For several years, a denominational commission has been studying whether women should be ordained as pastors. Franklin believes the majority of commission members are opposed to the idea, but some influential bishops may have”an open mind.” The Crouchs’ public bucking of the denominational tradition could promote change, he said.”This might move people who are on the fence on this issue in a positive direction.” Sherry DuPree, an expert on African-American Pentecostal groups, estimates that between 70 and 80 women have been ordained by some bishops of the church in the last two decades.”Most of them leave COGIC because they get no respect,”said DuPree, a member of the denomination.”So they end up going on, starting their own denomination or they go with another church organization that will accept women.” DuPree is less optimistic about the Crouchs’ action fostering a change of heart among the denomination’s top echelon concerning women pastors.”The leadership role of keeping men where they are is what they want,”she said.”They forget that the women raise more money for the church than the men. … The men are there as the leaders but the women actually do the work.” Hackworth, who succeeded the Crouchs’ father as bishop of the Southern California jurisdiction, said he considers their action to be a local church matter that will not influence the larger denomination.”They cannot prompt the church to do anything,”he said.

Leading bishops on the church’s general board have not commented publicly and did not attend the ordination service.”Not one bishop has called us and said `Why did you do this?'”said Sandra Crouch.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Anthea Butler, a doctoral student working on a dissertation on women leaders of COGIC, said the Crouchs’ prominence probably will prevent them from any official punishment by the denomination.”This is one of the major families of the Church of God in Christ,”said Butler, a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who is a member of another Pentecostal denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.”In that sense, there’s not going to be any repercussions from this because it’s somebody who’s so high-profile. What he’s doing is sort of forcing their hand.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Crouch said his decision to ordain his sister was based in part on a”loophole”in his local church’s by-laws allowing him to ordain anyone deemed necessary for church operations.


He said he also looks to the example of his late parents, Bishop Benjamin J. and Catherine D. Crouch. While his father founded the church in 1951, his mother also held a prominent role.”He would always say until probably a month before he died, `I don’t want you ever to talk about me and what I’ve done without giving the same credit to my wife,'”Andrae Crouch recalled.”That’s the same way I’ve been with my sister. That’s why I made her my co-pastor.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

The Crouch siblings, who will only say they are in their 40s, continue to declare their loyalty to the denomination, but said they hope its leaders will now reconsider their stance on ordaining women pastors. Andrae expects to ordain other women as his church expands.

Sandra Crouch enthusiastically recounts her work at the church _ tutorials, a feeding program, health fairs and other community work _ and plans to do more.”We’re going against a tradition of our church … and saying, `Hey, we have women in our church who love God, who are called of God,'”she said.”I’m not taking a man’s place. I’m just taking my place.”

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