This 230-year-old North Jersey church will ordain its first woman minister on Sunday

RIDGEFIELD — The red brick English Neighborhood Reformed Church building dates to 1793, when its steeple rose high above every other structure in what was then known as "the English Neighborhood," about 10 miles of land between the Hackensack and Hudson rivers.

The history of the congregation stretches even further back, to before the Revolutionary War.

But never in its 255 years has the church had a woman minister. That will change on Sunday, with the ordination and installation of Arlene Romaine.

“This is not just my accomplishment, this is the accomplishment of my entire congregation,” said Romaine, who is 59. “They walked with me through this journey and trusted this call. They have been so supportive of my time in seminary and have been awaiting this day of my ordination.”

Romaine was a hairdresser for 20 years before being called to a career with the church. She grew up attending church mostly on Christmas and Easter. But after her son was born in 1987, she began searching for a church in which to raise her children.

She was in her late 30s and worshipping at Ponds Reformed Church in Oakland when the Christian education director there left. She filled in while the church looked for someone new for the role. But eventually, she said, she “felt the lord calling to me: This is yours. I had been serving and recognized I was equipped for that kind of leadership.”

Romaine attended New Brunswick Theological Seminary, of the Reformed Church in America, at the campus of Rutgers University, one of the oldest continually educating seminaries in the United States, where she earned a certificate in theology.

She served at Ponds Reformed Church for 12 years before coming to English Neighborhood Reformed Church in 2015 as a contracted pastor. Romaine loved the church, and two years into her time there she was approached about staying long-term. Her contract was meant to be temporary, and if she was to become the church’s minister, she would need to seek full ordination.

So she returned to the seminary at Rutgers four years ago and in December earned a master’s in divinity. “It’s amazing how God can grow us,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what age you are. God leads us to amazing things.”

It just so happens this weekend marks 50 years since the first ordination of women elders and deacons in the denomination. Until 1973, there were no ordained women in the Reformed Church in America. Six years later, the first woman minister of word and sacrament was ordained.

Romaine’s ordination and installation at the church also come in March, a month of celebrating women’s achievements.

While she was studying for her master’s, Romaine, whose husband dabbles in genealogy, discovered that three of her male ancestor served as ministers in the same denomination at the historic First Dutch Reformed Church, or “Church on the Green,” in Hackensack in the 1700s.

Women's history:New Jersey women can teach us about gender equity as progress slows

“I just feel like God was calling me to this all along, even though I didn’t know at the time about this family history,” she said. “Here we are 300 years later and it’s the women in the family being ordained.”

Many of her family members will attend, including her daughter, who is coming from Sweden. Church ministers and elders will be in attendance, alongside seminarians and professors from New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Romaine said she hopes seeing a minister who looks like them empowers girls and young women to achieve their dreams.

“I think to have this moment of God’s ordaining the voice of a woman who is speaking the gospel message into the world in ways that are liberating and uplifting is extremely important,” she said. “This is about empowering women to find their voice and find their place in the world.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey church dating to 1793 to ordain its first woman minister