For Such a Time as This: New York City’s Female Pastors
“I was always looked at with some kind of disdain. They called me a troublemaker when I questioned the way women were treated.”
A decade ago, Vicki Moss was ostracized by her previous church community for questioning gender inequity and bringing attention to abuse she witnessed. Today, she is the pastor of her church in Queens, New York City. Here, Vicki leads initiatives to decrease gun violence, create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and empower women to pursue leadership roles.
Despite resistance in many Christian circles, women like Reverend Vicki Moss are pursuing pastoral roles at much higher numbers in recent decades. In fact, a recent study by Barna found that “One of every eleven Protestant pastors is a woman—triple as many as twenty-five years ago.”
For Such a Time as This documents eight women across New York City who are confronting the historic exclusion of women from Church leadership. These women span a variety of backgrounds, denominations, ages, and New York City boroughs and are all leading social justice work in their communities.
As numbers of women pastors continue to increase, these stories invite viewers to re-examine and challenge traditional beliefs about women’s role in the Church and other faith communities. By honoring the lives and work of these pastors, For Such a Time as This offers a new, more inclusive path forward for the American Church.
Reverend Vicki Moss, Pastor of Ridgewood Presbyterian Church in Queens, prepares for a service in November, 2022.
Reverend Adriene Thorne, pastor of the Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side
A member of St. Matthew's Baptist Church leaves the church's annual Thanksgiving Celebration in November, 2022. The congregation prides itself on their history of social justice work and community outreach in their Harlem neighborhood.
Dr. Lisa Jenkins Brown, pastor of St. Matthew's Baptist Church, in her home in Yonkers in April, 2023. Jenkins Brown was forced out of her church in her early twenties when she became pregnant out of wedlock. Her boyfriend, a leader in the same church and the father of her child, was not. Since then, Jenkins Brown has aimed to lead church communities that are inclusive and accepting to people in all walks of life. She also leads DEI courses for churches and organizations across the nation.
Light filters through a stained glass window in a prayer room at St. Matthew's Baptist Church in Harlem. In 2013, Dr. Lisa Jenkins Brown became the first female pastor of the church.
The sanctuary at Jehu's Table Lutheran Church on an early morning in March, 2023. Each Sunday, Reverend Kelsey Brown arrives long before the weekly worship service begins, unlocking the building, turning on lights, making last minute powerpoint adjustments, and arranging the wafers and wine for communion.
Reverend Adriene Thorne, pastor of the Riverside Church, stands in front of a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preaching at Riverside in 1967. This historic church has welcomed other noteworthy speakers like Cesar Chavez and Desmond Tutu. Since its beginning, the Riverside Church has worked on the forefront of social justice and faith.
The desk of Reverend Kelsey Brown, pastor of Jehu's Table Lutheran Church, a small church in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. Brown is the first woman and first queer person to pastor Jehu's Table. At 30, Brown is also the youngest person to lead the church.
Katie Crockford in the Union Theological Seminary chapel in March, 2023. Despite her recent struggles with injustice she witnessed in her childhood church, Crockford will graduate this year and begin her career as a pastor.
Katie Crockford through a window at Union Theological Seminary. After graduation, Crockford hopes to create more inclusive, diverse church communities than the one in which she was raised.
A beam of morning light enters Advent Lutheran Church before a Sunday Service in April, 2023.