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Rev. Jean Spikes honored
Each year, the Alabama-West Florida Conference Commission on the Status and Role of Women honors a woman who has been a bridge builder and barrier breaker toward the full and equitable participation of women in the life of both the church and community by presenting the Alice Lee Award. Like the woman for whom this award was named, this year's recipient has blazed a trail for other women. The Rev. Willow Jean Spikes has been following God's call to preach, bucking all odds, since a very young woman. A 1965 quote from the Mobile Register points out, "She is, in a true sense, a pioneer. What she had to pioneer against was the barrier of rejection of women ministers. But Jean Spikes has, since 1949, gone quietly about her Master's business, that of telling the gospel." Though raised in the Methodist Church, the Rev. Spikes began her ministry in the Congregational Methodist denomination, which was more open to women, and served the Concord Congregational Church in Ozark for 10 years. She returned to the Methodist Church after it opened its doors to full ordination for women. She was the second woman ordained in this conference and who has served it the longest. A number of years ago when asked how she felt about entering the predominately male ministry, Miss Spikes acknowledged, "I had to grapple with the idea of being rejected, of having doors closed, and all the fears that went along with the unknown, and, as I recall, I had no encouragement from anyone." One of the reasons that the Commission on the Status and Role of Women was established was to be supportive of women clergy. She was born in Geneva County, attended Vennard Bible College, Troy University and did her seminary work at Emory University. She has served numerous appointments in our Conference. The records of these many churches indicate that all have excelled and thrived under her leadership. Even after her official retirement, she was given the award for Small Church Growth for her work at Trinity United Methodist Church in Semmes and received the Denman Award for the Mobile District in 2003. She was the first woman to serve as Conference Evangelist and has preached many revivals, Holy Spirit conferences and homecomings. She even traveled to the Orient - Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong - teaching and training Bible Women. When at Brewton, theRev. Spikes was the first woman to be elected president of the areawide Ministerial Association, and then when she moved to Mobile, she became the first woman to serve as president of the Ministerial Association there. Jean is quoted as saying on many occasions, "I am not in the ministry to promote the cause of women but to promote the cause of Christ." But by doing just that she has promoted the cause of women! Her most recent district superintendent noted that there are now churches that accept women pastors without blinking an eye or even see women as the clergy of choice. He goes on to say, "That women in the past few years who have traversed in and through the Mobile District and have had an open door and a willing ear to listen to them, could best be explained in one name whose influence among all clergy and many churches still looms large - Jean Spikes!"
I will close with another quote from District Superintendent Bill Elwell, "Let's stand and cheer for the one gracious lady upon whose shoulders so many gratefully stand! The Reverend Jean Spikes!"
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