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Black Women And The Ministry

As a theology student, questions about a future career in the clergy are inevitable. Until recently I had always cracked jokes about my supposed future in the ministry, speculating that I was more likely to enter the hallowed halls of JP. Morgan than Westminster Abbey. 

It’s only now, halfway through my second year at university, that I have begun to seriously consider putting my theology skills to good use with a career in the ministry. Maybe it’s my calling, maybe I’m just tired of failing numerical assessments for city firms – who knows, but what I do know is that, all of a sudden, I feel a bizarre and inexplicable force pushing me towards ordination. 

I’d never even slightly considered the fact that my identity as a black woman would affect my prospects in this career, well any more than it normally affects my life that is, until I expressed my plans to my Director of Studies at University who said one thing to me. 

“Well Tiwa, the clergy is a lot like Cambridge – very male and very white.”