South Carolina Advocate | July 8, 2026
GREENVILLE—The church has never moved forward without women, and the future is hers, Bishop Robin Dease told the African-American Clergywomen of South Carolina during the Monday lunch break at Annual Conference.
The North Georgia bishop and South Carolina native was warmly welcomed back home by South Carolina clergy and laity.
Robin Dease
Georgia Bishop Robin Dease told a gathering of clergywomen that the church has never moved forward without the leadership of women. (Photo by Matt Brodie)
“Margins are God’s launching pad,” Dease said, offering examples from throughout the Bible where God sought and used marginalized people—a young girl from Nazareth becoming Christ’s mother and the women from the tomb making the first proclamation of the resurrection.
Who are the prophets on the margins today? Women and especially women of color have been the backbone of the church, Dease said, but are too often treated as the disciples treated the women bringing news of the resurrection, as idle chatter.
She offered a non-church example in Charm La’Donna, the dance choreographer and the creative director behind Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance, who chose collaboration over competition, a counter-cultural act.
“When we refuse the lie of scarcity, we open ourselves to possibilities of success,” Dease said.
Women, she said to great applause, see the possibilities of being a church of Jesus. We are still working through issues, she noted, referring to the behaviors during and the results of disaffiliation. Post-disaffiliation examinations showed that “men, who had not attended, participated or been involved in the life of the church, suddenly appeared at vote night. … Advocacy groups pushing for disaffiliation were overwhelmingly led by men, and women were often outvoted by those not involved in a church’s ministry.”
“Across the world, women have stepped into power not because the system accepted them, but because they saw the system failing them.”
The future of the church will be more compassionate, more courageous and more spirit-filled because of women, Dease concluded. “The church will be one shaped by women, architects like those God entrusted (with) the news of the resurrection.”