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Sara Palmater · Called to Serve

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  Hello and welcome today on called to serve you will be
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  hearing from Sarah Palmiter, who spoke with dr.
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  Emily Maxwell. And her research assistants
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  immediate, Sarah was ordained in 1986 and she recalls being
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  present at the 1987 convention assembly when the group voted on
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  whether to continue allowing women to go before the examining
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  Council. Sarah also shares about the
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  different shapes Ministry can take in the importance of living
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  out her calling regardless of the circumstances.
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  Love life. My dad was a pastor.
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  So I pretty much grew up in church.
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  My earliest, remembrances are Bayview Baptist in Bathurst,
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  where my dad was Pastor there. Then, when I was nine, we moved
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  to Newfoundland and he was the first full-time pastor at the
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  gander church. I came to know, Jesus knew about
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  him and then made my decision. When I was 4 years old, then was
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  baptized at 7:00. By the time I was 11.
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  I was starting to be a leader, really?
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  I had been called to Ministry when I was about 14 and we were
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  at an Association rally with Mildred.
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  Law was the speaker and dear missionary in India for years,
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  and she had given an altar call for people feeling called to
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  Ministry and I just kind of shrugged it off.
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  Because at that point, I was 14. I really didn't think women were
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  in Ministry and then she said it Doesn't have to be, you know,
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  pastoral Ministry. There's all kinds of different
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  Ministry and so if you feel God tugging at your heart come and
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  so I said, oh okay, I can deal with that, because that's true.
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  And I guess I always saw female missionaries as very much
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  equals, I could never understand why they were allowed.
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  Women were allowed to go overseas and because I knew what
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  they did because I was one of those kids that ask questions.
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  So why couldn't they do that back here at Summer.
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  I was 17. I was introduced to prison
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  ministry and that's where that Journey all started.
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  Pure lard was the chaplain at Dorchester at that time and so
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  he wanted me to go in and teach the boys action choruses.
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  Haha, couldn't understand why my mother was terrified for me
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  going into Dorchester 17, but it was a great time and then I was
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  off to dowel that fall and kept going into prison.
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  And and so then, I was like, debating what I wanted to do, I
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  wanted to go into social work or counseling or chaplaincy.
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  So I said, well I'll see if I'll get accepted at Acadia and I did
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  it was was hard back then. Especially I was often the only
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  girl and many of my classes. I remember 11 experience when I
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  was at Duke College. Rick Tobias and Larry Matthews
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  were working. They always tease me because
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  they could always tell when I had to do a class presentation
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  because I was dressed up. The only time I was ever dressed
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  up and so the guy that asked me, what are you up to today?
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  Sir, I said, well, I'm preaching and Larry was there in the
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  common room and and I knew Larry quite well and he said, they're
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  letting you preach a woman preach.
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  Oh, and I'm going, what is this coming from?
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  Because I thought you were my friend anyway, I didn't say
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  anything. And so the guys got bantering
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  back and forth and debating the whole thing and I said up guys,
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  I gotta go. So I left and Larry, followed me
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  out, put his arm around me and he said I'm sorry sir, I knew
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  you could take it but it's a discussion that has to happen.
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  It hasn't been happening and I just wanted a way for that to
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  happen. So there was a lot of
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  undercurrents. Even my mother who supported me,
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  many ways financially and other ways said to me, one day, she's
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  well I wouldn't want to have a female pastor and I went, whoa.
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  Mom really. She came to value my Ministry
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  later on when I was at diff College.
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  I always felt that the staff supported women in Ministry.
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  I never felt that any of them were in opposition, or not open
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  to that. I think they were very much
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  aware of some of the difficulties.
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  We did encounter in being placed, and that kind of thing.
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  NG I remember when I was graduating, they did a
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  preparedness for Ministry test and it was a series of questions
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  and you had to answer them and then they were, and they were
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  recorded and then they were sent away.
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  So the professor that was overseeing that Maxine Ashley.
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  They asked what I if I felt as if I was a Pioneer that was one
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  of the questions that was asked and I said no.
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  And so, when it was all done, just I can't believe how you
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  answered that question. She said, She said you're a
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  Pioneer sir. Look around you at convention.
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  It was brought to the floor for ordination of women, not to be
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  to be rescinded. Well, some of the girls came to
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  me and they were really upset and what are we going to do?
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  What are we going to do? And I said, we are going to do.
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  Absolutely nothing. There are enough men in this
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  denomination who support the organization of women and we
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  still had our back. Just paper at that time.
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  And I said, if I see one of your names and that paper, I'm going
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  to kill you because we would be seen as radical feminists out to
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  prove that we could do it and not obeying the call of God on
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  our lives. And they said, well, what
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  happens if? And I said and God's got another
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  plan, you know, we're following God's plan, that's all we're
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  called to do. And so anyway, it was
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  overwhelmingly defeated the next year, but During that year,
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  there were many many articles, written humic Malley was very
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  instrumental was a huge supporter of women in Ministry
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  and then several of those types of people Rose to speak mean it
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  was, it was a little bit scary, but I was quite confident that
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  it would be overwhelmingly defeated because there had been
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  such a history of women and not a huge history.
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  I don't mean it that way, but no work large numbers of women in
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  Ministry, but those that had been in Ministry, Industry like
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  met Todd, they had such powerful and strong Ministries.
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  It was seen as a positive thing by so many by people who had sat
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  under their Ministries and so they could speak personally from
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  that which was a really good thing.
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  It had come up several times on the floor before and had been
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  rescinded. Every time it was during the
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  time of real women's lib and I think a lot of not just men but
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  women to were it was a Canary measure I think that women
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  weren't being ordained because it was a fashionable thing to do
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  or that women could do it. And so I think that was often
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  the reaction. Typically New Brunswick has been
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  much more conservative than the Nova Scotia has been so nice.
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  A God I'll go wherever you want me to go except rural New
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  Brunswick. I was figured if I was going to
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  be in New Brunswick going to have a much harder time as a
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  female but yet It's interesting Josephine Moor.
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  Met Todd. Kind of our Pioneers.
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  Where were they from neurons? Like our nation Council, it was
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  really it was intimidating that Year.
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  Let me tell you, I mean at that point we had mentors that walked
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  with us for at least a year and helped us and human Ali was mine
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  and that was a great relationship and he shared from
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  his own experience he really helped me with my ordination
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  statement. He said you just don't want to
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  raise. Any red flags when you're in
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  there, no, little words that anybody can pick up on and pick
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  apart. Andrew McCrea was the was the
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  lead questioner at that point. He really liked me.
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  So that helped also, the biggest thing that helped that year,
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  most of the women were given a really hard time in fat and not
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  just the women. But the guys too, I was supposed
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  to be interviewed at 1:00 in the afternoon and I didn't get in
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  until 6:00. That night.
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  But one of the things that really helped was great, cook
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  was on the examining Council that year and he traveled.
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  And so he had stopped and Queenstown in at the General
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  Store and asked if they knew me and asked about me.
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  And he said that in the coordination Council and that
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  they loved me and that I was inclusive of people and
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  everybody in the community like me.
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  And I really went a long ways that always stuck with me that
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  he had taken the time to do that.
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  So I passed unanimously. I was the only person that year
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  that passed unanimously. I felt that God had gone before
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  me as far as coordination Council.
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  And certainly I made me feel that people were supportive of
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  my Ministry and my call to Ministry and all of that kind of
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  thing. And I was ordained in 86.
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  I had communion at my ordination service, puerile, urgh did that.
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  And Harry Gardner saying he was appointed.
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  Pointed as the executive Minister after having told his
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  son that don't worry. Jerry, will never have to live
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  here in St. John, I said Harry, remember
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  mine. I said I'd never pastor and
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  Rural New Brunswick. Haven't you learned yet?
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  Never Say, Never to God. So I ended up in a little Pastor
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  it and the Saint John River Valley in Hampstead in
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  Queenstown I was only 24 when I went there and single It was
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  hard because it was an hour to go anywhere.
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  It was an hour to go to Sussex and I were to go to st.
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  John an hour to go to Fredericton, and no grocery
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  store, no stores. So, whatever, there was a
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  convenience store. Basically, there were no young
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  people in my congregation other than children, it was lonely.
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  That was the biggest hardship and it was a small congregation
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  so it wasn't like we had things every night of the week, you
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  know? We have worship service on
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  Sunday and then we had midweek, Bible study, I had youth group
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  on Friday nights and that was pretty much it and some
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  visitation. So it was I didn't realize it
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  but I became quite depressed while I was there.
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  Fortunately, I did have some good friends in Fredericton who
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  recognized it and helped me. I don't think they really
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  realized how depressed I was either but they helped me
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  through it. And then I met now, And so then
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  we were married in 88 and then I left and 90 just to give you an
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  idea of how difficult the situation was in Hampstead.
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  It would have been the fall of 85 convention was doing a
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  Evangelistic tight tour of churches and Harry came to be at
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  my church. He spoke and afterwards, his
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  words to me were Sarah, when are you going to get out of this
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  godforsaken place? Ace and he doesn't didn't use
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  those kinds of words lightly and so, I did try to resign a couple
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  of times throughout that time, but God physically would not.
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  Let me write the resignation and then in 1990 just flew out of my
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  hands almost. So I knew it was time, but was
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  it hard? Because I was a woman, was it
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  hard? Because I was single?
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  Was it hard? Because I was young, all of
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  those things were part of it. Our journey kind of took Finish
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  different direction. When we move to Fredericton, we
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  actually went to a Nazarene church for a while, which then
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  joined with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.
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  That's when we came back. When we came to Brunswick
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  Street, Baptist and was a member there and and they were pursuing
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  bringing in women deacons and they had never had women deacons
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  before. I couldn't be at the meeting
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  where it was actually voted on because I was co-facilitating
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  grief share that night but I went to the pastor and As I
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  said, I have two concerns. I'm sure you've already covered.
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  I would never want there to only be one female Deacon on the
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  board, that would be really hard.
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  But I also in this size church, I would never want it to be all
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  female deacons either. Nor would, I want you to just
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  appoint a woman because you had to you need to know that she's
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  called and a viable candidate. He still worried.
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  We've already got that safeguarded.
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  Good. I figured you would.
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  But while they Seem to not have a problem with women doing lots
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  of ministry, grief share, Bible study leadership.
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  Now even being on the deacons etcetera, they just don't
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  perceive a woman in ministry as a paid position.
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  I know that when women deacons came in, there were a number of
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  people who left the church. I'm glad that they laughed and
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  didn't stay to cause dissension. But you know, and what really
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  shocked me in those discussions about women in Ministry was the
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  number of young families that were in opposition to it.
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  I had had my son in 90 and my husband was on the road two
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  weeks of every month. So at that point, I felt I
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  needed to step aside from full-time, pastoral Ministry.
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  And then it just never seen that God wanted anything.
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  Although I wonder if I had been somewhere else.
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  If I would have been in some sort of paid Ministry because I
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  was never out of ministry, and I hate that.
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  Oh, so you're not Ministry anymore.
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  And we're Baptists. Excuse me.
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  Do we not believe in the priesthood of all believers?
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  I don't know how we assist people to understand that a
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  calling on someone's life is about God and it's not about
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  structure and it's not about whether there's a job.
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  Job, because it's far more than a job.
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  Well, I think that years ago, pastors were a lot like the
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  country doctors and they were on call 24/7, and that was very
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  difficult. The same time, I think we've
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  made pastors feel that they're entitled to a lot of time off
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  and not that, I think that that's wrong, but there's times
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  when you have to forego your own stuff to be with your people, I
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  think it's still a I heard struggle for women with young
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  children in Ministry, they're expected to do all the Pastoral
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  duties but they also have young families.
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  My dad was. I knew he worked and there were
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  times yes, that he couldn't be with us because he had something
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  that, you know, like somebody was dying and he had to be there
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  or, you know, something like that happened.
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  But at the same time he was the dad that could be at the school
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  concerts usually yeah, we missed.
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  I'm at times because there were other there was a higher calling
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  on them, but we never felt cheated, I think it's important
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  that people come to understand not just women but men as well
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  that when you're thinking about Divinity, College training the
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  training, you get equips you for so many different things that if
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  somebody never ends up in a pasture, adore in official
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  leadership capacities. It's okay because it's trained
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  you to do so many things. Things.
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  Well, I remember being at convention really times and
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  people say, oh, you're not, you're not in the ministry
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  anymore. That was the perception because
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  I wasn't, I didn't have a church.
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  I, you know, I wasn't being paid to do ministry and so therefore
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  I wasn't really a minister and I think that is very much the
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  concept of anyone who has stepped away from pay
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  professional Ministry, who was ordained and I think that's very
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  wrong and it's not mapped istic. At all, because God calls us to
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  tasks at various times. And sometimes it's not to be in
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  official leadership positions, but to be in other capacities of
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  ministry, within the local church or within just the world.
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  And I think that that's really important.
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  That people remember God calls you to those places in those
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  situations for reasons. You may never understand them
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  completely, but as long as you know, you're called to be where
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  you're supposed to be. It's okay.
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  Thank you, Sarah for sharing your story with us.
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  You can find more information about called to serve up called
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  to serve .c, a, or by emailing us at called, to serve at Acadia
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  U.C a thanks for listening and I'll see you again next week.