*Reverend Neichelle Guidry is working to change the perspectives on female preachers.
As the Dean of the Chapel at Spelman College, Guidry wants to open the minds of folks who still don’t believe that women belong in the pulpit.
“It’s not just men who perpetuate patriarchy,” said the 33-year-old single, Black pastor. “You have women who don’t believe women should be ordained. Don’t believe women should preach. Don’t believe women should wear that dress in the pulpit.”
“This has been my fight—to really shine a light on those systems,” she added.
According to a Vice report, the dais belongs to Guidry at Spelman. She moved to Atlanta from the south side of Chicago where she served as the Associate Pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ. She has been on a mission ever since to raise awareness, transform the structure and open doors for more impassioned women like herself.
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“I felt the weight of my womanhood in the Black church,” said Guidry to Vice. She holds a Ph.D. in liturgy and homiletics, which is the art of preaching and writing sermons.
Being a young, Black, a woman and a millennial, she said, is a “perfect storm of marginalization” in the church.
“There’s no lack of millennial clergy,” she said. “What there is a lack of is adequate spaces for millennial clergy to be authentic.”
Once Guidry realized that there are many other women who feel called to preach, she created ShePreaches.com a virtual community for Black women in ministry.
The website is a space where black female pastors can support one another through mentorship, friendship and womanhood.
Scroll up and check out Rev. Guidry’s sermon “Your Will Be Done” from October 2017 via the clip above.
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