November 5, 2026|Analysis![]()
One of the most widespread misconceptions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the notion that there are no women pastors. This falsehood is accompanied by at least two other errant ideas: that the purported non-existence of women pastors owes to the prohibition of women’s ministry by the General Conference and that women’s ordination is in disharmony with the Bible. Yet another false belief stems from the idea that women leaders are culturally objectionable, suggesting that rejecting women pastors is a cultural issue.
Adventist institutions have long kept their meeting minutes, yearbooks, and reports on women’s ordination classified. Without the internet, access to this information has been restricted to conference, union, or division employees. And in this way, the existence of women in gospel ministry and other forms of church leadership has been largely forgotten or consciously hidden by leaders who have hoped to quell conversation on the topic. Who, then, is responsible for Adventists’ ignorance regarding women pastors? And who bears responsibility for gender inequality in the pastoral ministry?
The long story of women in Adventist ministry is one of action responding to need. Between 1863 and 1865, Hannah More became the denomination’s first church planter, converting people in the West African coast. In 1868, Sarah A. Hallock Lindsey and Ellen S. Edmonds Lane became the first Adventist evangelists. In the following year, 1869, Lindsey became the first Adventist woman pastor, and received her ministerial license. Two years later, Ellen G. White, cofounder of the Adventist Church, received her first ministerial credentials, awarded only to people that were ordained for gospel ministry. Lane and Lindsey were not the first women pastors of that time. And though Adventists communities remain proud of the legacy of church’s pioneers who dedicated their lives to the denomination’s foundation, except White, few or no women—past or present—are mentioned.
In the South-American Division (SAD), for instance, there is Dina Salas, deemed the first Adventist woman pastor formally registered in the territory. Salas began her ministerial career in Peru in 1977, and, in 1979, received her missionary licenses and credentials from the church. While official documents used the term “missionary,” church publications and accounts of those times identified her as a pastor. In 1986, for instance, Adventist Review described her as a “Peruvian pastor and evangelist,” while mission quarterlies highlighted her work in the Camana district, where she led churches, preached, oversaw the work of pastors and elders, and ran evangelistic activities that resulted in the organization of new congregations and the baptism of dozens. Salas’ journey unfolded while the General Conference (GC) recommended that women not receive ministerial credentials, only missionary credentials, even when they performed pastoral duties. After four decades of ministry, which included the role of hospital chaplain and were concluded as she retired in 2017, Salas is one of the most relevant characters in South American female pastoral ministry, leaving a legacy of evangelism, leadership, and service.
More recently, in Brazil, there was also the brief journey of Aqueldan Feldberg. From 2021 to 2022, Feldberg was part of a small group of women performing pastoral duties in the Nova Semente church, in São Paulo, without the formal pastoral title given by the organization. In that year, she was identified as a “pastor” in the church’s official website, but the label was later removed.
One of the most widespread misconceptions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the notion that there are no women pastors. This falsehood is accompanied by at least two other errant ideas: that the purported non-existence of women pastors owes to the prohibition of women’s ministry by the General Conference and that women’s ordination is in disharmony with the Bible. Yet another false belief stems from the idea that women leaders are culturally objectionable, suggesting that rejecting women pastors is a cultural issue.
Adventist institutions have long kept their meeting minutes, yearbooks, and reports on women’s ordination classified. Without the internet, access to this information has been restricted to conference, union, or division employees. And in this way, the existence of women in gospel ministry and other forms of church leadership has been largely forgotten or consciously hidden by leaders who have hoped to quell conversation on the topic. Who, then, is responsible for Adventists’ ignorance regarding women pastors? And who bears responsibility for gender inequality in the pastoral ministry?
The long story of women in Adventist ministry is one of action responding to need. Between 1863 and 1865, Hannah More became the denomination’s first church planter, converting people in the West African coast. In 1868, Sarah A. Hallock Lindsey and Ellen S. Edmonds Lane became the first Adventist evangelists. In the following year, 1869, Lindsey became the first Adventist woman pastor, and received her ministerial license. Two years later, Ellen G. White, cofounder of the Adventist Church, received her first ministerial credentials, awarded only to people that were ordained for gospel ministry. Lane and Lindsey were not the first women pastors of that time. And though Adventists communities remain proud of the legacy of church’s pioneers who dedicated their lives to the denomination’s foundation, except White, few or no women—past or present—are mentioned.
In the South-American Division (SAD), for instance, there is Dina Salas, deemed the first Adventist woman pastor formally registered in the territory. Salas began her ministerial career in Peru in 1977, and, in 1979, received her missionary licenses and credentials from the church. While official documents used the term “missionary,” church publications and accounts of those times identified her as a pastor. In 1986, for instance, Adventist Review described her as a “Peruvian pastor and evangelist,” while mission quarterlies highlighted her work in the Camana district, where she led churches, preached, oversaw the work of pastors and elders, and ran evangelistic activities that resulted in the organization of new congregations and the baptism of dozens. Salas’ journey unfolded while the General Conference (GC) recommended that women not receive ministerial credentials, only missionary credentials, even when they performed pastoral duties. After four decades of ministry, which included the role of hospital chaplain and were concluded as she retired in 2017, Salas is one of the most relevant characters in South American female pastoral ministry, leaving a legacy of evangelism, leadership, and service.
More recently, in Brazil, there was also the brief journey of Aqueldan Feldberg. From 2021 to 2022, Feldberg was part of a small group of women performing pastoral duties in the Nova Semente church, in São Paulo, without the formal pastoral title given by the organization. In that year, she was identified as a “pastor” in the church’s official website, but the label was later removed.
There is also the case of Mara Sales, with over three decades of ministerial work experience in five different church districts, two of which were on university campuses. In 2012-2015, Sales was an associate pastor at the Spanish Union, and in Brazil, she worked for 12 years at the Adventist University Center of São Paulo, performing pastoral, educational, and chaplain duties. Throughout her journey, her work was mentioned in many different ways by church publications: She was described as a chaplain, as a teacher, but also with the prefix “Pr.” Her history puts her alongside many other women who worked in chaplain ministries in Brazil, such as Marcia Bispo and Adella Dutra.
There are also Brazilian women who serve in other countries, particularly the US, where they found space to work as pastors. Among these women is Therezinha Barbalho, who earned a theology degree from the Adventist Theology College. She began her ministry in Brazil as a Bible worker, and, after years of voluntary work, she was called to be a pastor at the New Jersey Conference in 2004. Barbalho later became a senior pastor at Potomac Conference, and then, in 2019, she was ordained, becoming the first Brazilian woman to be ordained as a pastor in the Adventist Church.
Another relevant Brazilian woman is Cristiane Cazarine, who works at the Carolina Conference as a church planter, pastor, and director of the Young Adult and Campus Ministries. Her journey combines evangelism and ministerial leadership, showcasing that Brazilian women have also performed noteworthy pastoral roles outside the country.
Suzanne Portela, on the other hand, began her ministry in an uncommon way. In 2007, before she finished her degree in theology, she was invited to act as an assistant pastor of a hispanic church in New York. According to her, she was the first woman to perform this duty in that area before completing her studies. Since then, Portela has built an international ministry, with pastoral and academic experience in many countries. She is also one of the few Brazilian women identified as a “pastor” in official publications of the church.
The late Simone Cristine Pieper, is another woman who performed her ministry abroad. Pieper worked as a Bible instructor for Portuguese speakers in a London church for two years. And for 12 years, she was a school chaplain in Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil. She also completed a residence in hospital chaplaincy in the US.
Unfortunately, the patriarchal, misogynistic culture of our earlier leaders erased the history of our female pioneers and contemporaries from our meetings and books, or, attributed them with the role of “helpers,” always on the margins, in the shadows of their husbands.
With the advent of cyberspace and the GC’s attempt of democratizing access to information, online databases enabled the advancement of research on the work of women in Adventism until 2016, when yearbooks halted the publication of names of ministers currently in service.
According to research by Nerida Taylor Bates, the president of the Association of Adventist Women, there are 4,251 women serving in the pastoral ministry in 2026, whether as pastors, chaplains, religion teachers, or field administrators. From that total, 3,176 are in China, which represent approximately ¾ of women in pastoral ministry. This is only possible because, according to the Fundamental Beliefs, the Church Manual and the GC Working Policy, Adventists can have licensed, commissioned and ordained women pastors. To assert otherwise is a lack of knowledge about our history and our workings as an organization.
Additionally, the 2021 Annual Statistical Report states that women comprise 57 percent of Adventist membership. Women make up the same percentage of SAD members. In the 2021 meeting of the SAD Executive Committee, the division reported that 5,626 of members had a woman as their major local leader. Recent surveys on the demography of adventism in Brazil—based on the 2010 national census—point that “women are always the majority in every [Brazilian] region, except children in the South, where there are 0.6% more men than women. In the Northeast, there are 6.5% more adult women than men, 5.1% in the Midwest, 4.9% in the Southeast, 4.1% in the South and 2.7% in the North.”1 In other words, adult women are the majority—by 15.9 percent—within the Brazilian church.
Survey on Women’s Ordination
Due to such differences between the discourse of church leaders and the actual church, Zelota magazine conducted a survey titled Pastoral Ministry and Women’s Ordination in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (data available in Portuguese) to map out views on ministerial ordination among people connected to the church in varying degrees. The survey was conducted through Google Forms and was publicized on social media, as well as across Adventist online groups.
The data was collected primarily between June and August, 2025. The survey had 34 questions organized in 11 sections: profile of the respondents; knowledge on ordination; modes of pastoral employment; views on ordination for deacons, elders, and pastors; the role of women in pastoral ministry; the history of debates and votes of the church on ordination; views on women’s ordination; information on White and women in ministry; the acknowledgement of women in ministerial roles; views on ordination, gender and ministerial criteria; and challenges in women’s ordination. While most of the questions were multiple choice, a few provided space for respondents to share their arguments. In total, the survey had 248 respondents.
Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The survey did not collect information that identified the respondents. Because the survey was publicized on social media and undertaken voluntarily, the data sampled does not reflect Adventist membership as a whole. The results express the opinions, perceptions, and knowledge of the respondents, and should not be interpreted as representative of Adventist membership or the official stance of the church.
Views on Women’s Ordination in Brazil
Among respondents, 47.2 percent were cis men and 48 percent were cis women; 39.5 percent were 25-34 years old, 26.2 percent were 35-44 years old, 10.5 percent were 18-24 years old, and 14.5 percent were 45-54 years old. The overwhelming majority—85.1 percent—declared heterosexual orientation. Fifty percent of respondents lived in the state of São Paulo, while the other 50 percent were evenly distributed throughout the country.
Sixty-six point one percent of the respondents stated that they are church members who attend Sabbath service regularly, 14.5 percent were members who do not attend the church, and 14.1 percent were former members.
Ninety-six point eight percent of the respondents claimed they know what ordination is in the church. However, only 54 percent knew there are three types of employment for pastors. Eighty-seven point five percent of respondents knew about ordination, while 52 percent knew about commissioned credentials and 56.9 percent knew about licensed credentials.
Over 90 percent of respondents support ordination of men and women as deacons and elders. In the case of pastoral ministry, however, 85.9 percent support ordination of men and women, while 12.1 percent support ordination only for men. That rate was approximately the same for the question “Do you believe that women should be ordained as pastors in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?”
Eighty-three point nine percent of respondents believe that women can perform the role of pastors with the same responsibilities as men; 8.9 percent believe they can perform other roles in ministry, but not as ordained pastors, only as licensed or commissioned pastors; and 5.6 percent believe they should not have any roles in pastoral ministry.
Eighty-four point seven percent of respondents believe that women’s ordination as pastors is currently a relevant topic for the church, while 13.7 percent believe it is not. Similarly, 83.1 percent believe that understanding about the ordination of women should be adapted to current reality, taking into account the cultural and social context, while 12.5 percent believe it should not.
The proportion between different responses, which was consistent so far, changes regarding views and knowledge on more specific topics. Seventy point two percent of respondents believe that the Bible supports the ordination of women as pastors; 15.3 percent believe that it does not; and 14.5 percent do not know or do not have an established opinion. Only 49.6 percent of respondents believe that the church’s mode of ordination is biblical; 25.4 percent believe it is not, and 25 percent do not know or do not have an established opinion. Similarly, 37.1 percent believed that the church has a vote on not ordaining women; 27 percent believe there is no such vote, and 35.9 percent do not know or do not have an established opinion.
When questioned about their knowledge of the six studies on women in ministry performed by the church in the last 52 years, 55.2 percent of respondents did not know about any of them, and 41.5 percent knew about the Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) undertaken in 2013-2014. Few people knew the other five studies in the list: the 1973 Role of Women in the Church Committee Committee, the 1975 Role of Women Study Group, the 1985 Role of Women in the Church Committee, the 1988 Commission on the Role of Women I, and the 1989 Commission on the Role of Women II.
Similarly, most respondents—71.4 percent—did not know about the two votes taken by the GC in 1881, authorizing the ordination of women for the pastoral ministry:
RESOLVED, That all candidates for license and ordination should be examined with reference to their intellectual and spiritual fitness for the successful discharge of the duties which will devolve upon them as licentiates and ordained ministers.
RESOLVED, That females possessing the necessary qualifications to fill that position, may, with perfect propriety, be set apart by ordination to the work of the Christian ministry.
The lack of knowledge even extends to the life of Ellen White. Fifty-three point two percent of respondents did not know that White had the credentials of an ordained minister, and 64.9 percent did not know there were other women pastors during her lifetime. Similarly, 64.9 percent were unaware that White defended paying salaries to women who performed pastoral duties.
In summary, while most of the respondents showed support for women’s ordination, both sides showed a general lack of knowledge about the subject’s church history. This favors the status quo by framing something that is and long has been a reality in many Adventist circles as a novelty.
As in The Metropolis, So in The Colonies
In 2017, reflecting on what was going on with the church and celebrating the 500 years of the Protestant Reformation, renowned Adventist historian George R. Knight published the book Adventist Authority Wars, Ordination, and the Roman Catholic Temptation. In the introduction to the collection of essays, articles, and lectures, Knight set the tone of the book in a brief analysis of the church’s predicament that is still relevant today:
The real issue in Adventism today is not the ordination of female pastors but the issue of authority. In that it finds a parallel in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, a movement that at its core was not about indulgences or justification by faith but about ecclesiastical authority. In the present situation the ordination of women is merely the topic that has given rise to the struggle over authority.2
Back then, the church was still reeling from the disastrous 2015 GC Session, held in San Antonio. During the vote on whether or not to permit each division to independently decide whether to ordain women, the GC omitted the favorable stance of the TOSC reports. Equally omitted was the report showing that most divisions were favorable to the change. As a result, the motion lost by a narrow margin: 42 percent in favor and 58 percent against it.
Knight’s book, after discussing pastoral ordination from a theological perspective and showing there is no biblical basis for restricting it to men, highlights the historical importance of union conferences for the democratization of the church, and tells about many “authority wars” in the church’s brief lifespan. The historian concludes that the international drama over women’s ordination is a new authority war, and that the church is again at a crossroads: Will it fall into Rome’s temptation and strengthen hierarchies such as the Catholic Church?
But as accurate as Knight’s analyses might be, it is difficult for a Brazilian Adventist to take them without a grain of salt. The text is written with the optimism of an Adventist researcher from the global North, a scholar from the global metropolis who has lived with independent church press vehicles and diverse liturgical and ecclesiastical practices for at least 60 years. In the global South, in the territories that were once colonies and are now the backyard of the beast that arises from the earth, “Rome” has won a long time ago.
One must only look to the SAD for proof. The division, led since its founding by leaders from the US or of European heritage in a country with a Black and indigenous majority, has only four unions with administrative autonomy out of 16. This same leadership cozied up to and legitimized the bloody military dictatorships across the continent, including in Brazil and Chile.
But while the German church, which supported Hitler in the Second World War, published an official apology statement, Latin-American leaders steeped in support for the fascistic military remain proud of the fact, and now support the plotters of the types of military coups that their grandparents embraced. The late emergence of Zelota as an independent Adventist media outlet in Brazil points to South American Adventism’s deep rightwing roots: While in the US the founding of SPECTRUM Magazine and the Adventist Forums in 1969 drew many denominational workers and scholars who openly took part in the endeavor, Zelota arose 50 years later, led mostly by lay members and church workers who had to hide their identities.
As so aptly noted by Knight, those issues of ecclesiastical authority have everything to do with women’s ordination. Ministerial equality between men and women, just like the affirmation of LGBTQ+ members and the fight for minority groups, champions and takes further the universal priesthood of all believers, carrying the Protestant Reformation’s stated aim to its logical conclusion. White male church bureaucrats understand that very well when mobilizing fundamentalist resentment and framing every attempt at democratizing Adventist power as an ungodly slippery slope: Women’s ordination will lead to the ordination of queer people, which will lead to the destruction of the family and, ultimately, socialism. As Karl Marx shrewdly noted when describing the establishment of a dictatorship in France:
Even bourgeois liberalism is declared socialistic, bourgeois enlightenment socialistic, bourgeois financial reform socialistic. It was socialistic to build a railway where a canal already existed, and it was socialistic to defend oneself with a cane when one was attacked with a rapier. This was not merely a figure of speech, fashion, or party tactics. The bourgeoisie had a true insight into the fact that all the weapons it had forged against feudalism turned their points against itself, that all the means of education it had produced rebelled against its own civilization, that all the gods it had created had fallen away from it. It understood that all the so-called bourgeois liberties and organs of progress attacked and menaced its class rule at its social foundation and its political summit simultaneously, and had therefore become “socialistic.”
That struggle is more cruel and brutal in the colonies. In the American and European churches, which have faced for decades stagnation in the conversion of new members, discussions are often at the table, with etiquette and institutional sophistication. But in the global South, the last frontier of growth for the church, the protection of ecclesiastical privileges is aggressively preemptive: Any church that attempts to embrace excluded groups, whether by employing women pastors or giving space to queer people, is immediately subject to the full force of institutional violence.
Ironically, the GC president who presided over the SAD for 14 years with a heavy hand, Erton Köhler, seems to be very respectful of institutional boundaries in a moment when women’s ordination is regaining momentum. But it remains to be seen whether Köhler will acknowledge the autonomy of union conferences for ordaining women and redeem the authoritarian legacy of South American Adventism.
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