Nearly 200 Nazarene women clergy attended the 2022 Wesleyan Holiness Women’s Clergy Conference, held 10-12 March 2022 in Grapevine, Texas. The bi-annual conference is a gathering of women clergy across many Wesleyan-Holiness denominations. 

During the conference, Upstate New York District Superintendent Olivia Metcalf was elected president of the Wesleyan Holiness Women’s Clergy (WHWC) organization. Among the many workshop topics were sessions that examined the call, taking a lead in refugee ministry, ministering to foster and adoptive families, racial reconciliation, and many more. 

“It’s an opportunity to be reminded of our heritage,” Metcalf said. “We have always ordained women, and we still need to continue to do better. Because although it has improved since WHWC was founded, we still have a pretty low percentage of women clergy in our ranks.”

Metcalf first attended the event while in college. Though she was committed to her call to ministry, she didn’t know of many women in ministry at that time.

“When I went to that conference for the first time and walked into a room with hundreds of women across different denominations, it was so transformational,” Metcalf said. “That’s a huge thing that this conference and organization continues to provide—a sense of belonging when it can be pretty lonely to be a female clergy member.”

Elise Snowden, a pastor at New Life Church of the Nazarene in Medford, Oregon, attended the conference for the first time this year. She felt the event was a window into the heritage of women in ministry.

During her youth, Snowden saw many women in ministry and she feels inspired and honored to join their ranks.

“I’m in awe that I get to step into that story and be a part of that story,” Snowden said. 

“We’re at a point in history now where so many women have done trailblazing and paved the way that my generation can just step into our calling without questioning it because of our gender.” 

The Oregon Pacific District sponsored the full cost of the conference and travel for more than 20 women, including Snowden, to attend the event. Many districts chipped in to help cover the cost of a denominational dinner for the nearly 200 Nazarene clergywomen in attendance. Through a partnership with The Foundry Publishing, a copy of the new book Faithful to the Call: Women in Ministry, edited by General Superintendent Carla Sunberg, was given to each dinner guest.

“It’s one thing to say you support women in ministry, but then it’s another thing to do something like that,” Snowden said. “It’s kind of like putting your money where your mouth is.”

The conference celebrated the Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and the theology that brings the denominations together. Metcalf noted that Nazarene theology and traditions are primed for times where there seems to be so much divide.

“The Wesleyan-Holiness way is something that I think is an answer for a lot of the problems that the broader culture and even [issues] our churches are facing,” Metcalf said. “So to have this group of strong women leaders gathering together under the banner of Wesleyan-Holiness theology, it feels like it’s a prime time for deepening what it is we believe and seeking to go back to wherever we’re assigned across our denominations to continue to share that particular vision of the good news.”