Rev. Dr. Nadean Bishop

When she was five years old, Nadean felt called to go to Nigeria as a missionary, later realizing that only women missionaries were allowed to preach by Southern Baptists. Forty-five years later she matriculated at Pacific School of Religion, and received the M.Div. degree in 1985 and became pastor of the Northside Community Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a closeted lesbian. When she was called to pastor the University Baptist Church in Minneapolis in 1992, she became the first "out" ordained American Baptist LGBT person to be called to a pastorate.

During the intervening years, Nadean had married, had four children, completed a Ph.D. in Victorian Poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, divorced, taught at Eastern Michigan University for 25 years, and recognized that she was a lesbian. As the American Baptist campus minister at the University of Michigan, she began to counsel with LGBT persons, and this became a major ministry while she was pastor at UBC in Minneapolis.

Nadean's donation of a spangled party dress is to exemplify that her life as a lesbian pastor and counselor has not been a hardship but has been like a party. In June of 1996, she and her partner, Sheryl Palmer, expressed their commitment to one another in a service at University Baptist Church, complete with communion and anointing with oil. They share a home on a ten-acre horse farm in Stillwater, Minnesota.

This is one of my favorite pieces in the Shower of Stoles collection. It is made all the more unique when one considers the donor -- a distinguished, snowy-haired grandmother. It is, though, a perfect reflection of Nadean Bishop. Though the path she followed had its share of rocky places, Nadean has embraced life to the fullest, and her ministry has exuded grace, compassion, steadfast love, and much positive energy.

The emotional and spiritual weight of this collection -- the bigotry and oppression, the loss of careers and dreams, even the loss of life in a few cases -- can be overwhelming. This whimsical piece does not allow us to rest in victim hood, but moves us on to a place of faithfulness, love and joy.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006