By Rev. Kevin T. Taylor, Contributing Writer
Women’s History Month invites remembrance. International Women’s Day commands attention. The Church, however, is called to discernment.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1787 and incorporated in 1816, was born in resistance. Our Zion emerged because Black people refused to worship under humiliation. Yet even within a tradition forged in protest, recognition has not always moved at the pace of calling.
The Church elected and consecrated 116 men before the year 2000, when the Rt. Rev. Vashti McKenzie became the 117th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was not until the election and consecration of the 143rd Bishop, in 2024, that the Rt. Rev. Erika D. Crawford became the first woman to be elected on the first ballot and subsequently elected first in an episcopal class. And it took from 1819 until 2016 for the Rev. Jarena Lee, the first woman licensed to preach in our Zion, to be posthumously ordained by the very church she had served.
The Tension We Must Hold
These milestones matter. They mark real progress. They also expose a truth we would rather not name: institutions often benefit from women’s labor long before they formally affirm women’s authority.
That is the tension this month must hold.
We rightly honor national figures whose names have shaped public imagination: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Vice President Kamala Harris, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. Their leadership matters. Their visibility widens imagination.
But the deeper question is closer to home.
Before a new preacher to the Conference stands to deliver an annual report, someone has already shaped the standards by which that report will be measured. Before a bishop presides, someone has preserved the discipline of the pew. Before policy is debated, someone has practiced stewardship in obscurity.
In our local congregations, Black women have governed long before we named it governance. They have set expectations, guarded excellence, corrected posture, preserved memory, and built systems sturdy enough to carry ministries they were not always permitted to lead.
This is the quiet architecture of our Zion.
Governance Before Recognition
Preparation is a form of reverence. Excellence is stewardship. Governance begins long before public authority.
It looks like this.
At Bethel AME Church in New Bedford, Sis. Toni Pires, Trustee, once gave a new preacher to the Conference a ride and told him to “find your way home.” It was not a suggestion. It was an instruction. Unless he could tell her where to turn, the car would remain where it was. Learn the streets. Know the community. Do not depend on others to navigate what you are called to serve. Orientation is governance.
At Bethel AME Church in Ann Arbor, Sis. Lillie M. Brown led the drama ministry for years with disciplined excellence. Through pageants, recitations, and sacred productions, she shaped how Scripture was embodied before it was exegeted. Children learned timing, diction, posture, and reverence. The Gospel was not only heard; it was rehearsed. Imagination, too, is governance.
In that same congregation, now-Deaconess Peggy H. Taylor served for years as Quarterly Conference Secretary. Minutes were not casual notes. They were records, memory, and accountability. Names were spelled correctly. Motions were captured precisely. History was preserved with care. Administrative discipline is not clerical. It is ecclesial stewardship.
At Allen Chapel AME Church in Hartford, Sis. Linda C. Gant has served as Vice-Chair of the Steward Board, Treasurer, and now as First District Lay President. Her leadership is not ornamental. It is structural. She recommended presentations that later opened doors beyond a single congregation. Denominational fluency is governance.
At Union AME Church in Warwick, Sis. Channabel Latham-Morris endured the unthinkable loss of her only son. She did not romanticize grief. She dignified it by establishing a foundation to honor his memory and by helping change the biking laws in the state where he was killed while cycling. Her witness did not deny sorrow; it disciplined it. Suffering, borne without spectacle, becomes testimony. Even lament can govern.
Infrastructure That Carries Us
Sister Gladys Keller, longtime leader of the Pastor’s Aide and First Ladies ministry at People’s Institutional AME Church in Brooklyn, demonstrates that kindness is not softness. It is infrastructure. It is meals prepared, notes written, and hospitality organized. Pastors supported without fanfare. Pastoral stability does not float; it is carried.
At Grant AME Church in Los Angeles, Sis. Brenda J. Curry, founder of Curtom Building and Development Corp., became one of two Black builders of Target stores nationwide. She did not separate enterprise from faith. She modeled excellence in contracts, construction, and courage. Marketplace authority and church membership are not rival callings. Economic integrity is governance.
At Israel AME Church in Albany, Sis. Emily A. Taylor, First Lady, and the first female and first alumna Chief Operating Officer of Cheshire Public Schools, embodies executive steadiness within congregational life. She demonstrates that systems thinking, accountability, and disciplined leadership are not foreign to Zion. They are at home there.
These women serve in different cities, different congregations, and different spheres. Yet their labor shares a pattern. They shape expectation before recognition. They correct without humiliation. They preserve memory. They dignify grief. They steward finances. They model excellence. They govern without spectacle.
Theology in the Pew
Theologian, author, and professor, the Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Grant, reminds us that theology must begin with the lived experience of Black women, especially those situated at what she called “the particular within the particular.” Womanist theology refuses to romanticize suffering. It insists that we attend to it as a site of revelation and resistance. Christ is found among the least, identifying with those whose labor is essential yet often unnamed.
Women’s History Month cannot end at the national level. It must descend into the pews.
The names offered here are not exhaustive. They are illustrative. Every congregation can supply its own list. In every sanctuary, there are women whose standards will outlive our titles.
The question is not only who we celebrate publicly.
The question is this: Who in your congregation has already shaped the standards by which you measure faithfulness?
Reverend Kevin Taylor is the pastor of First AME Church, Albany, New York, and an Associate WIM Member, Western New York Conference.
