Our Baptist Union’s broadly established position of calling women to hold pastoral charge of a church may be at odds with what is taught and practised in some of the contexts from which new arrivals have come. How can we help identify or nurture leadership potential of the women we are blessed with from all ethnic backgrounds? By Gale Richards
At the 2026 Baptist Assembly our General Secretary Lynn Green, highlighted the growing numbers of baptisms and people coming into church membership as a great source of encouragement. As we reflect on how to grow more leaders, it is important to acknowledge that some of this growth is due to the latest wave of migration from the Global South. In light of this, we should ask (and seek to answer) this question: What might we need to do differently, to help identify or nurture leadership potential (particularly among women) in our churches? Are there any insights from the past that might help us?
The 1950s and 1960s were significant periods in the life of our Baptist Union. During these years, thousands of people from the Caribbean, and other Commonwealth countries, took up the invitation to rebuild post-Second World War Britain. As a number of them joined churches in our Union, a challenge that emerged was the recognition that doctrine – what a church believes and teaches – is often influenced by context. Accordingly, when a church includes people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds it potentially has to navigate a wider range of perspectives on what the church should teach and practise.
In the 1960s it became apparent that convictions held by some British Baptists were not shared by Baptists from other contexts. For example, many British Baptists believed that parents had to be church members for their infant to be dedicated in a church. Yet, this was not necessarily the case in parts of the Caribbean. This was observed by Revd Clement Gayle, whom the West Midland Baptist Association – today known as the Heart of England Baptist Association – had invited over from Jamaica, to spend a year working amongst Birmingham churches. Gayle’s remit was to help churches respond to the needs and aspirations of these new arrivals from Commonwealth countries like Jamaica. A Baptist Times article captured the differences observed by Gayle: “Jamaicans, whether they are members of churches or not, regard it as their duty to have their babies dedicated”1.
Sixty years on from Revd Gayle’s observations, we face a different challenge, as we seek to identify and nurture leadership potential amongst women and men who have newly arrived in our churches. Our Baptist Union’s broadly established position of calling women to hold pastoral charge of a church, may be at odds with what is taught and practised in some of the contexts from which new arrivals have come. Between 2014-2020, as the coordinator of the Baptist Union’s BME Women Ministers’ Network, I was involved in navigating precisely this kind of terrain.
The Network was designed to help more women from UK minority-ethnic heritage backgrounds, emerge, survive, and thrive as ministers. The cultural heritage of some of these women had been shaped by the teaching of churches, including Baptist churches, in other parts of the world, that precluded the ordination of women. When they later sensed a call from God to ordained ministry, the Network became a place where they could find books, role models, and mentors, to help them respond to this sense of call.
My 2024 doctoral thesis, Ain’t I a Deborah? is in part a study of the life of the Network. Its title is inspired by Sojourner Truth, the African-American women’s and civil rights activist, and her 1851 speech, ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ – also known as ‘Arn’t I a woman?’. In the thesis I highlight how some of the women supported by the Network, who responded to God’s call to ministry, had to overcome not just gendered assumptions about who could be a minister, but also racialised assumptions encountered in Britain, that suggested they were not worthy to be ministers.
The findings of my doctoral research, lead me to suggest that our Baptist Union can better nurture the leadership potential of the women and men it is blessed with from all ethnic backgrounds, by committing to at least three things:
Telling our Baptist history in ways that include Black and Brown people’s experiences and contributions. This helps challenge racialised stereotyping present in some churches that prevents the capabilities of Black and Brown people being recognised.
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Suggested resources: Gale Richards (2023) [2014] Text and Story, Prophets for their time and ours, Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies, Occasional Papers, Volume 9
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Anthony Reddie, Wale Hudson-Roberts, and Gale Richards (eds.) (2017) Journeying to Justice -Contributions to the Baptist Tradition across the Black Atlantic, Bletchley: Paternoster.
Drawing on resources such as Bible commentaries that reflect on women’s experiences and acknowledge ethnic and cultural diversity.
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Suggested resource: Carol A. Newsom et al (eds.) 2014) The Women’s Bible Commentary 3rd Edition, London: SPCK
Telling the stories of women in the Bible (especially Deborah’s) in ways that affirm women as leaders. My study revealed that Deborah’s story can be an early and important resource for girls and women as they articulate why they feel God calls women to ministry.