Eve's Legacy

By: Photos and text by Vickie McIntyre

The first bite. It changed everything. And church patriarchy has been slow to forget the chaos that followed Eve’s willful disobedience. So perplexed by the story, the early church fathers even debated whether women had souls. Only men, they agreed, could preserve the faith.

Four female pastors reflect on their callings


The first bite. It changed everything. And church patriarchy has been slow to forget the chaos that followed Eve’s willful disobedience. So perplexed by the story, the early church fathers even debated whether women had souls. Only men, they agreed, could preserve the faith.

Yet women have continued to challenge the spiritual rules and roles placed upon them. Why? Meet four female pastors who have their own reasons, as well as their own dreams of the legacies they’ll leave behind.

Rev. Bonnie Kline Smeltzer
Pastor of University Baptist and Brethren Church, State College
Elizabethtown College, B.S. in Social Work
Bethany Theological Seminary, Masters of Divinity (M. Div.) 1981

“I think I had a real sense of calling to a vocation of service when I was baptized at age 12,” says Smeltzer.

In high school when a woman suggested the seminary, Smeltzer dismissed the idea as craziness. “It was the 60s and I didn’t know any women in ministry, so I went to college and got a degree in social work,” she laughs.  

But others continued to encourage Smeltzer to consider the ministry, so in 1977, she applied to seminary “just for a theological education.” Smeltzer quickly realized that her real calling was helping people grow closer to each other and to God. She wasn’t alone. For the first time since the Church of the Brethren ordained women in 1958, Smeltzer’s class was more than 50 percent female.

Nevertheless, many congregations didn’t embrace the idea. “It was pretty predictable that married men were placed first, then single men, then clergy couples (women attached to men), and single women went last, if placed at all,” says Smeltzer. “It was a painful thing to go through seminary as a community and then in the end, to know that there were places not ready to have women.”

Although Smeltzer admits that people can use the Bible in all sorts of ways to say women shouldn’t be in ministry, she knows she chose the right vocation. When confronted with criticism, which hasn’t been often, she insists, “I don’t think I’d misinterpret my call from God. Sure, I’m not in the traditional package, but God is doing a new thing.”

An older man from her first congregation would agree. “Bonnie,” he said after one of her sermons, “Whenever you’re in the pulpit, I am reminded of all the women that have nurtured me in the faith.”

Rev. Faith McCausland
Former Pastor of Aaronsburg United Church of Christ (U.C.C.); currently Pastor of
Kenilworth U.C.C. in Tonawanda, N.Y.
Canisius College, B.S. in World Religions and Women’s Studies
Lancaster Theological Seminary, M. Div. 2003

Raised Lutheran, McCausland admits she left the church in her 20s because she “wasn’t all that interested.” Everything changed after marriage.

“We had just bought a fixer-upper home in West Buffalo when the neighborhood became the battlefield for two gangs,” she says. “My kids were little at the time and after several violent incidents, we decided to board up our home and leave.”

Homeless, McCausland and her family stayed with members of a church they had started attending, which led to discussions on curbing urban violence. A small group, including McCausland, went to Chicago to learn from Gameliel, a faith-based community action organization. When they returned, McCausland helped form VOICE BUFFALO, an organization designed to tackle social justice issues that eventually grew from just a handful of people to 1,300 members in three years.

“That’s where my call came,” says McCausland. “Out of that violent incident, I felt very empowered by voice.”

She decided the United Church of Christ (U.C.C.) denomination was the best place to pursue ordination.

“In the U.C.C., there was a history of accepting women and their gifts and they also ordained the first openly gay pastor in 1971, which spoke volumes to me about where they stood on social justice issues,” says McCausland.

But she quickly found that what a denomination says and what it practices may be vastly different.  

“In seminary when referring to God, we were encouraged to use inclusive language, like using male and female pronouns or words like parent or teacher. In fact, it was a requirement to write with inclusive language, but many male students didn’t and were never reprimanded.”

McCausland admits subtle prejudices still exist, citing that women still aren’t paid as well as men and often have to work without a staff. Although acknowledging that previous women pastors had it much harder than she does, McCausland hopes for a day when women are truly equals and recognized for their strengths.

“I think women do less of a top-down ministry,” she adds. “It’s more side-by-side leadership.”

She also defends Eve’s actions depicted in Genesis.

“I think Eve did what we all would do if we were told not to touch something—think about our Christmas presents! Eve fed Adam; she nurtured him; she shared. A patriarchal point of view says she led him down the path of destruction, but a more feminine approach is that she nurtured him by sharing what she thought she had gained.”

“Yes,” McCausland admits, “Eve took the first bite, but men are just as curious as women. We’re in this together. And that’s my hope—that we’re headed toward understanding that God made us both and we both have gifts.”

Rev. Christy Dowdy
Co-Pastor of the Stone Church of the Brethren with her husband, Rev. Dale Dowdy, Huntingdon, Pa.
McPherson College, B.S. in Elementary Ed.
Emporia State, Master Teacher Certification
Bethany Seminary, M. Div. 1989

“I was married right out of college and then divorced, which led me to ask those important questions of ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who was I created to be?’” says Dowdy. During that crisis, Dowdy rarely went to church because it made her feel uncomfortable. A song on the radio drew her back.

“The lyrics,” says Dowdy, “touched me, as if God was calling me to do something else.” The song she refers to was “Spirit of the Living God.”

So in the midst of pursuing a doctorate in education, she says, “I wound up married to Dale (already ordained) and in seminary.”

During her seminary years, she and her husband explored the idea of doing team ministry and even went for counseling to consider how children might affect their future. “We decided that we wanted to have children and to intentionally share the work,” says Dowdy.  

Two months after graduation, she gave birth to their first child and became co-pastor with her husband at a church in Nebraska. Each week they rotated jobs.  Week one, she was mother and housekeeper while her husband worked at church; the following week the roles reversed. The arrangement worked well for 9½ years, during which two more children arrived.

The move to rural Pennsylvania still amazes her. “It seemed too conservative an area and I didn’t think it would work with the ‘Big D’ on my chest,” Dowdy muses, acknowledging it’s been a wonderful experience.

“Team ministry can be very positive,” says Dowdy, “very balancing. I’m more of an empathetic listener, more likely to work at the inter-connecting of people. Dale does it, too, but he’s more goal-oriented, more black-and-white.”

She’s also adamant about dislodging the notion that church is about rules. “This is where we ask our questions,” she insists. “I hope that people would know me as a person who challenged them to think with more imagination about God and to look at living their lives with greater integrity.”


Rev. Diana Malcom
Associate in Ministry for College Ministries, State College Presbyterian Church
Lock Haven University, B.S. in Management Science
Penn State University, Masters in Parks & Rec
Columbia Theological Seminary, M. Arts in Theological Studies, 2000

Looking back, Malcom says she always experienced God in nature, which might explain why she chose to use her Parks & Rec degree to work at a Presbyterian church camp. “I was married and living in Atlanta,” she says, “when I realized that most of my understanding of church and religion was all intuitive and I wanted to be more educated. So, I decided to go to seminary.”

Although a seminary graduate, she chose not to pursue ordination—a lengthy process—because she was pregnant and felt such a strong call to be a mother. That decision, she admits, has been more of a stumbling block for others than her gender.

“I think one of the prejudices that we all have to address is the idea of the ordained person being closer to God,” she says.

Malcom describes her work as spiritual direction for college students. “I love the relationships, the dynamic nature of all we do together,” she adds.

Her gift of connecting and caring is evident in the number of people who gravitate toward her, whether she’s in a coffee shop or walking down the street. Malcom’s willingness to explore what she calls “sticky issues,” things like ordaining homosexuals or accepting someone’s agnosticism, attracts them to her as well.

“I was trained as a program director,” she explains, “so it’s been eye-opening and risky for me to realize that it’s not about me being in control but being together, loving what happens, and being okay with mistakes. It’s often through what we’re not supposed to do that we learn and grow.”

When she recently saw The Children of Eden, a play about the creation story, she says her favorite part was when Eve desires to know more. “In our humanity,” says Malcom, “we feel a strong pull toward knowing what is beyond. Maybe that ‘beyond’ is also what calls us to know God more intimately.”

“I hope my legacy will be that my living pointed toward GOoDness,” she adds, emphasizing both words. “I hope people will know I cared about God’s creation and children and that caring was obvious by my actions, not just my words.”  • SCM

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