2026 Antoinette Brown Society Clergywomxn Leadership Event takes place in Raleigh this week

The Antoinette Brown Society (ABS), formed in 2015, carries on the tradition of the Antoinette Brown Award in honoring pioneers and innovators in the midst of the United Church of Christ, will commence this week in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tuesday, September 29 and running through October 2.

The ABS brings together new church start pastors, military chaplains, seminary deans, ecumenical leaders, pastors, preachers, evangelists and more. The 2025 ABS awardees that are being featured: the Rev. Anne Holmes, honored as a trailblazing elder; the Rev. Melody Seaton, trailblazer; and the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood, a trailblazing innovator.

This year’s theme is “Rooted, Restored, and Rising;” and there will also be a collaboration with African American Women in Ministry (AAWIM) inspired by the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3, as the Antoinette Brown Society gathers to embrace the M.O.R.E. God has. M.O.R.E. stands for identifying Ministry Opportunities, prioritizing the Relationships, Rest, and Resources necessary for the journey, and cultivating a standard of Excellence that honors the calling of every season. 

Minister for Ministerial Support and Accountability, part of the MESA Team, Rev. Tara Barber, said of the gathering, “As we come together in the memory and power of Rev. Antoinette Brown, we join our ministries with the legacy of hope and justice, grounded in love. We have been praying and planning, imagining those traveling from across the denomination to gather, rooted in faith and community, in search of restoration, and set to rise, transforming your church once again.”

Reflecting on the roots of the organization’s founder, Barber added, “It was in 1853, in a Congregational church in South Butler, New York, that Antoinette Brown was ordained. And while we are proud of her, and of the ability of the church to recognize her gifts for ministry in this pre-civil war era, we often stop there.”

She continued, “To tell the fullness of Brown’s story is to invite in the stories of women ordained in our tradition since then. It is to recognize the courage and deep faithfulness; the tenacity needed and the costs borne in answering God’s call to ministry when embodied as female or beyond the gender binary. And to tell the truth about racial and gender discrimination in the church.”

Barber invites the prayers for the church gathered in conversation, in worship and quiet reflection. Next week’s UCC Digest will recap the week in Raleigh with photos and quotes from those attending.

---

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.