Andrew Francis|August 13, 2026
As much of the US spent the evening of Saturday, July 4 outside, celebrating the nation’s independence with barbecues and fireworks, I too was outdoors, though I was not thinking about America’s 250th birthday. Instead, I was at the hot and humid Camp Victory Lake in Hyde Park, New York, for the Northeastern Conference’s second week of camp meeting, which included its annual ordination service. What occurred during that special service helped illustrate the denominational progress Adventism has made, while also highlighting what has been described as its “hypocritical” nature.
Four ordinands stood on stage alongside top conference administrators and General Conference (GC) Vice President Pierre Omeler, who gave the program’s homily. All four ordinands had been serving as pastors and leading churches in the Northeastern Conference for at least four years. All four were vetted by a conference ordination committee to determine their “spiritual stability,” “social maturity,” and other character qualifications. All four went through the same ceremonial procedures during the July 4th ordination program. Yet, only three pastors were ordained.
What Even is the Difference?
Petrice Wideman holds her certificate after being commissioned as a pastor at the Northeastern Conference camp meeting. Photo courtesy of Petrice Wideman
The fourth pastor was Petrice Wideman, lead pastor of the Stuyvesant Heights Church, one of the few women pastors in the conference. She is also Omeler’s daughter. Despite being listed as an “ordinand” in the camp meeting bulletin, Wideman was granted the distinction of being commissioned by the conference, an alternative to ordination that is used almost exclusively for women pastors. While both require nearly identical qualifications and expectations of the candidates, ordination is superior to being commissioned, as it grants the pastor the ability to plant churches and hold administrative positions. Many maintain that different distinctions are just a tool to limit a woman’s pastoral capacities.
“It’s a semantic thing where one word is used for women, but one word is used for men,” Wideman explained. “But the thing is, words are very impactful. So on the one hand, it’s not much of a difference, but then on the other hand, the small distinction is everything, where for many people it will always justify the subordination or devaluing of women leaders.”
The Atlantic Union, which the Northeastern Conference is a part of, currently permits the hiring and commissioning of female pastors. A few other North American Division (NAD) unions permit women’s ordination, in direct opposition to the GC’s mandate based on a vote during the 2015 GC Session to not allow women’s ordination. This distinction, however, seems to be lost on many church members, as seen during Wideman’s commissioning.
The fourth pastor was Petrice Wideman, lead pastor of the Stuyvesant Heights Church, one of the few women pastors in the conference. She is also Omeler’s daughter. Despite being listed as an “ordinand” in the camp meeting bulletin, Wideman was granted the distinction of being commissioned by the conference, an alternative to ordination that is used almost exclusively for women pastors. While both require nearly identical qualifications and expectations of the candidates, ordination is superior to being commissioned, as it grants the pastor the ability to plant churches and hold administrative positions. Many maintain that different distinctions are just a tool to limit a woman’s pastoral capacities.
“It’s a semantic thing where one word is used for women, but one word is used for men,” Wideman explained. “But the thing is, words are very impactful. So on the one hand, it’s not much of a difference, but then on the other hand, the small distinction is everything, where for many people it will always justify the subordination or devaluing of women leaders.”
The Atlantic Union, which the Northeastern Conference is a part of, currently permits the hiring and commissioning of female pastors. A few other North American Division (NAD) unions permit women’s ordination, in direct opposition to the GC’s mandate based on a vote during the 2015 GC Session to not allow women’s ordination. This distinction, however, seems to be lost on many church members, as seen during Wideman’s commissioning.
Progressive Peers and Congregational Critics
As the air-conditioned tent where the ordination/commissioning service was packed, I paced the dusty campground pathways a few yards away, trying to watch the service via a YouTube livestream on my phone while combatting the glare of the 96 degree sunshine. During Omeler’s homily and the charge given to all four ordinands, I noticed that many viewers commenting in the live chat were quick to note a women’s presence, with several accounts expressing their confusion and displeasure.
One account questioned why women were even allowed to be pastors, asking for scriptural support of female priests or pastors. Others went a step further stating that they would never “call a female pastor or elder” or “sit in a church with a woman pastor.” A few deranged comments went as far as to accuse Wideman of being a lesbian or transgender. She was dressed in a blazer and skirt that were both the standard black for all pastors and was accompanied on stage by a woman in white. Those commenters were oblivious to the fact that the woman with Wideman was clearly identified as her mother when she took the stage.
Despite the sexist structure that denominational policies maintain and many members further enforce, Wideman said that she has “been received surprisingly well” by her congregations and colleagues so far.
“When Dr. [Abraham] Jules [president of Northeastern at the time] spoke to me the first time when I was going to be hired, he told me that ‘We’ll send you to churches and there will be people that would not be excited to see you as a woman pastor,’” she recalled. “‘But we’re going to send you anyway, and the administration is going to stand with you.’ … I’ve been blessed to be received quite well, and while there’s a lot more growth and progress, it’s a new concept for a lot of people.”
A sample of this growth was seen in the many of the YouTube commenters who were quick to call out the inappropriate remarks towards Wideman during the service and who cited examples of other women God used for ministry in the Bible, like Deborah and Rahab. It struck me as peculiar during that online cacophony of arguments and misinformation that a significant portion of the negative comments appeared to have been made by women. Another pastor later told me that this is not uncommon.
Keeping A Sister Down
Donnett Blake, who has worked for the Northeastern Conference as a chaplain and pastor since 2002 and currently serves as its women’s ministries director, said that she is not optimistic about the church’s membership becoming significantly more in favor of women’s ordination on a local and global scale. She believes that not enough has changed since 2015, when only 977 of the 2,363 delegates—41.35 percent—voted in favor of women’s ordination.
“The majority of members really do not support women’s ordination,” Blake said. “And I realized that across [the] board, females are my worst enemy, in terms of pastoring. The males may be a little more accepting, a little bit more respectful. The females are where I find the greatest pushback and the greatest disrespect in terms of acceptance.”
When asked why she thought that was the case, she admitted that she did not know for sure, but suggested that jealousy may play a part in the women disapproving of women pastors.
“A young lady at one of the churches that I pastored after I left came up to me and said, ‘You know, when you started here, I didn’t like you,” Blake said. “‘And it wasn’t anything about you that I didn’t like. I didn’t like the fact that as a female you were up there, and I thought that should have been me.’”
Blake has not always received the same warm reception from church congregations as Wideman has. Her struggle for acceptance as a pastor reached its lowest point at her own home church of New Dimension in Brooklyn, New York, where she was installed in 2017, and a significant portion of the church publicly split off from the main congregation as a result. This “chexit” or church exit, as some would call it, did not prompt her to abandon her call.
“I remember praying one morning, and God says, ‘I didn’t call you to popularity. I didn’t call you to be loved by people. I called you to preach. Whether they like you or not, you’re going to preach,” Blake said. “In that moment, I felt him closer than ever. And it gave me courage to forge forward. So when I got to New Dimension, and the church split, the first thing that God placed in my spirit to do was to evangelize. And so that summer we had a massive evangelistic meeting, it was one year, and New Dimension baptized more people than they’ve ever done.”
God Ordained or Goalpost Moving?
Despite Blake’s long tenure as a pastor, she has refused to be commissioned. While she is well-versed in spiritual leadership and is granted the same pay rate and abilities as a commissioned pastor, she finds the commissioning practice almost offensive.
“I felt that [commissioning] is hypocrisy, in terms of a pastor is a pastor.” Blake explained that, “If they had commissioned me while I was in the education department [as a chaplain], then that would have been great. I wouldn’t have a problem with that, because we commissioned teachers … I’m not a female pastor, I’m a pastor. A male is not a male pastor, he’s a pastor. We are pastors. You either ordain, or you commission, everybody.”
Blake also mentioned that she does not discourage Wideman or any other pastor from being ordained or commissioned; that is left up to each woman’s own convictions as to how they can be most effective in their ministry.
A few male pastors stood outside of the ordination service with me and discussed the same feeling that commissioning rather than ordaining was hypocritical. One described it as the church “playing games” with women ministers.
Amanda Hawley, senior pastor of the New Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has played on both sides of the commissioned-ordained tension. She was the second woman pastor hired by the Northeastern Conference in 2016, with Blake being the first, and was commissioned in 2021. After moving to the Alleghany East Conference in 2024, she was allowed to be ordained in July 2025. Her experience further highlights the growing institutional divide within the NAD, as Alleghany East’s Columbia Union ordains women, and other unions have reignited the call for the world church to follow suit.
Hawley said that her move from the Northeastern Conference, where she was also well supported by male colleagues and administrators, to Alleghany East was motivated mainly by the opportunity to live closer to her aging parents. Still, she takes issue with how the church handles ordination for both genders.
“Before you even bring women into the discussion about ordination, it’s not consistent across the board,” Hawley said. “It’s really turned into this thing that is clearly not biblically based, and I feel that conferences oftentimes use it as a carrot … I knew guys who weren’t ordained simply because they weren’t married. It had nothing to do with people not seeing the call of God in their lives and them not manifesting fruit, and all these nice things that we like to say about ordination. It’s not consistent.”
Secure in God’s Call
Petrice Wideman serves as lead pastor of the Stuyvesant Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brooklyn, New York. Photo courtesy of Petrice Wideman
Regardless of the denomination’s inconsistencies, the scrutiny of members, or the hypocrisy of commissioning pastors, all three pastors—Hawley, Blake, and Wideman—shared that they take comfort in the security of knowing that they are in ministry solely because of their divine calling.
“I would be a fool to do anything else, because I’d be on my own like Jonah,” Wideman said. “Being in the heart of God’s will is where happiness and fulfillment reside.”
Blake uses a different biblical analogy to describe her ministry, comparing herself to Balaam’s donkey in Numbers 22, who God used to speak against evil. She adds that although “my choice was social work” while she attended Andrews University, “God’s choice was ministry.”
Wideman added that her calling to pastoring is further verified by the responses she receives from those who are reached by her ministry:
I’ve had so many people say, “You know, there’s a lot of dispute about women in ministry, but every time I listen to you, God speaks to me.” … So, it’s when people see you in action, and they experience the hand of the Lord through you, that’s the evidence that God will use whomsoever he chooses, and it’s up for us to align with him.
Wideman said that her GC vice president father has consistently been supportive of her ministry and her decision to follow in his footsteps. Furthermore, her pastoral ministry may be setting up a third generation, as she said that her youngest of two daughters has expressed some interest in being a pastor.
Hawley has also seen a growing normalization of women in pastoral ministry as a direct result of the work that pastors like her, Wideman, and Blake have been doing.
“One cool experience that I had when I was pastoring in Stamford, [Connecticut] some of the kids that were born [in the church] they’d never had a male pastor,” Hawley shared. “So one of the little boys [named] Christian was like, ‘Men can’t be pastors. Only women are pastors,’ because in his three years of living, he only had me.”
Hawley explained that similar to how women in secular leadership roles and careers are being normalized, especially for younger generations, the same ideals are bound to continue penetrating through Adventism.
And while she may be right, the way the denomination currently handles pastoral ministry prompts the question: Is the church fully following Jesus’ Great Commission, or is it cheating itself by restricting half of the membership’s participation?
Cover: Petrice Wideman, center, escorted by her parents, during the Northeastern Conference commissioning service at Camp Victory Lake in Hyde Park, New York, on July 4, 2026. Photo: Northeastern Conference/Flickr
Regardless of the denomination’s inconsistencies, the scrutiny of members, or the hypocrisy of commissioning pastors, all three pastors—Hawley, Blake, and Wideman—shared that they take comfort in the security of knowing that they are in ministry solely because of their divine calling.
“I would be a fool to do anything else, because I’d be on my own like Jonah,” Wideman said. “Being in the heart of God’s will is where happiness and fulfillment reside.”
Blake uses a different biblical analogy to describe her ministry, comparing herself to Balaam’s donkey in Numbers 22, who God used to speak against evil. She adds that although “my choice was social work” while she attended Andrews University, “God’s choice was ministry.”
Wideman added that her calling to pastoring is further verified by the responses she receives from those who are reached by her ministry:
I’ve had so many people say, “You know, there’s a lot of dispute about women in ministry, but every time I listen to you, God speaks to me.” … So, it’s when people see you in action, and they experience the hand of the Lord through you, that’s the evidence that God will use whomsoever he chooses, and it’s up for us to align with him.
Wideman said that her GC vice president father has consistently been supportive of her ministry and her decision to follow in his footsteps. Furthermore, her pastoral ministry may be setting up a third generation, as she said that her youngest of two daughters has expressed some interest in being a pastor.
Hawley has also seen a growing normalization of women in pastoral ministry as a direct result of the work that pastors like her, Wideman, and Blake have been doing.
“One cool experience that I had when I was pastoring in Stamford, [Connecticut] some of the kids that were born [in the church] they’d never had a male pastor,” Hawley shared. “So one of the little boys [named] Christian was like, ‘Men can’t be pastors. Only women are pastors,’ because in his three years of living, he only had me.”
Hawley explained that similar to how women in secular leadership roles and careers are being normalized, especially for younger generations, the same ideals are bound to continue penetrating through Adventism.
And while she may be right, the way the denomination currently handles pastoral ministry prompts the question: Is the church fully following Jesus’ Great Commission, or is it cheating itself by restricting half of the membership’s participation?
Cover: Petrice Wideman, center, escorted by her parents, during the Northeastern Conference commissioning service at Camp Victory Lake in Hyde Park, New York, on July 4, 2026. Photo: Northeastern Conference/Flickr
P.S.
Commissioned pastor Petrice Wideman:
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