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The Reverend Catherine Campbell
Episcopal priest
"Most of the religion is passed on maternally?. Most of the resistance to women doesn?t come from the congregation, it comes from male clergy. When I started the process for ordination in Texas, the bishop said a woman couldn?t have a Hispanic ministry. Many women give up, but I?m known for my tenacity. Now there are twenty-two Hispanic Episcopal churches in Los Angeles, and most are led by women."
Reverend Campbell and Deacon Bettye Reynolds are Episcopal ministers who do God's work in an obscure place where most priests are unwilling to officiate. Their pulpit in South Sacramento is the common open field of a housing project or a resident's living room. Of the 125 families living four-unit buildings, 90 percent are single-parent homes without fathers; the mothers speak only Spanish. The congregation is the children of these single parents. Each Saturday night they come to bring ceremony, drama, art, music, and hope to children who are rarely read to, listened to, or held. Deacon Bettye Reynolds is also the spiritual leader of Four Winds Native American Episcopal Church. She works to show her congregation the connections between native American and Christian spirituality.
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