1.   Her presence as pastor and preacher at Sunday communion at Augustana Lutheran Church in Houston represents a victory for ordained black women.

2.   Ordained women tend to want to share leadership, be more democratic than many church traditions allow and break down hierarchical ways of doing ministry.

3.   One of the women who was a mentor to me was an ordained woman in a congregation in California.

4.   She represents a victory for ordained black women.

5.   Still, she said, she expected the new generation of ordained women to find inspiration in those who had attained prominent positions.

6.   Maze said the Episcopal Church in Arkansas has many ordained women ministers and is tolerant of homosexuality, although it does not yet bless same-sex marriages.