For Immediate Release

African American Author and Pastor to Give Women in Church and Ministry Lecture at Princeton Seminary

Princeton, NJ, December 15, 2005– The Reverend LaVerne M. Gill, pastor and teacher at the Webster United Church of Christ in Dexter, Michigan, will give the annual Women in Church and Ministry Lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary on Thursday, February 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Miller Chapel.  Her lecture, titled “Wanted: Women in Ministry Requirements: Susanna’s Faith, Vashti’s Courage, and Mary’s Obedience,” will address female biblical role models for women in ministry today.

Gill has served at the Webster United Church of Christ since 1999, when she became the first African American and the first woman to serve as pastor in the church’s 175-year history. She has published four books, including African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History (Rutgers University Press, 1997), has lectured around the country, and has appeared on a number of television and radio programs. Recently, she delivered a paper at the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s conference, “African Contributions to the Religion of the World,” titled, The African American Spiritual, which was also presented at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Celigny, Switzerland.

The Women in Church and Ministry Lecture is sponsored annually by Princeton Theological Seminary’s Women in Church and Ministry Committee.

Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812, the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Its first woman graduate to receive a professional degree for ministry was Muriel von Orden Jennings, who graduated in 1932. It is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country, with more than 700 students in five graduate degree programs. For more information, contact the Office of Communications/Publications at 609-497-7760.