Women's Clergy Network members share their seminary journey
Featuring Maureen Hamblin, Lizeth Momanga, Dorhel Davis and Junie Saint-Claire
By Samantha Angeles
“I know what I heard, and I heard what He said,” shared Maureen Hamblin, second-year Masters of Divinity candidate and Women’s Clergy Network President. “God said, ‘Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am, send me. And if I was a man, I would have said the same thing.”
Each month, more than 20 female seminarians gather at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary for the Women’s Clergy Network (WCN) “Chat and Chew” meeting. The event, held during the Seminary’s afternoon break, provides female seminarians with the opportunity to develop a system of support and encouragement over a light lunch. Hamblin began the meeting by sharing the journey that brought her to the Seminary and God’s providence through it all. A wife and mother, Hamblin and her family left Ireland and a lucrative medical career in response to God’s call to ministry.
Women representing countries such as Romania, Great Britain, France, the Bahamas and the U.S. nodded their heads in agreement as Hamblin testified how God overcame even the greatest roadblocks to coming to the Seminary. Many had been teachers, nurse practitioners and students holding acceptance letters to other graduate schools when they received God’s call to ministry.
“It was encouraging to hear the stories behind their call,” said first-year seminarian Lizeth Momanga. “It was not easy for any of them. No woman would go would through that struggle unless it was a call from God.”
WCN provides valuable opportunities such as the “Chat and Chew” lunch for women to realize that they are not alone in their ministry journeys. “I believe the work of WCN is to celebrate and affirm all these women who have chosen to respond to the call of God in their lives,” said Hamblin. “Seminary is the only time that most of us will be among so many other women in ministry.”
Junie Saint Clair, who chose God’s call to ministry over an acceptance letter to medical school, shared that interacting with other female seminarians has been a valuable part of her experience. “All the women I’ve met here have helped me to see that there are no cookie-cutter pastors; they come in all colors, shapes and sizes,” she said. “God calls people from all backgrounds.”
Before coming to the Seminary, many of the women wondered how they would be treated by professors and colleagues. However, they each expressed that all of their professors, and the overwhelming majority of students, had treated them with respect. “I have never encountered a professor who has treated me as less [than my male colleagues] or demeaned me,” shared Saint Clair. “The teachers are vocally supportive and inclusive. It comes from our dean.”
Indeed, many women shared that Dean Jiří Moskala’s leadership was a key reason for the Seminary’s welcoming environment. Dorhel Davis, a third-year MDiv student, even pulled up a video of Moskala at a General Conference session vocalizing his support for the women at the Seminary. “The person with the most important position celebrates the fact that there are so many of us here,” stated Momanga. “It helps me feel like I belong.”
Even those who had encountered resistance from male colleagues shared that it had not discouraged them. “I am grateful for all the people that don’t support me and other women in ministry,” declared Hamblin. “They are helping me develop a thick skin and learn not to take things personally. It is not us in particular they are against but rather the change that would come by allowing women to be in ministry.” Regardless of treatment, each of the women expressed that obeying God was the most important value in their lives.
When asked what they would say to any woman in the Seventh-day Adventist church considering coming to the Seminary, all echoed Davis’s statement: “Come. Regardless of a GC session vote. Regardless of what you feel others may think of you. Because you have been called by God, not by man.”
