{"id":59905,"date":"2026-02-22T10:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T15:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?p=59905"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:50:18","slug":"reverend-patricia-berry-21-is-whitmans-first-congregationals-woman-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/reverend-patricia-berry-21-is-whitmans-first-congregationals-woman-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverend Patricia Berry (’21) is Whitman\u2019s First Congregational’s Woman Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from <\/em>MSN<\/a>‘s<\/em> article \u201cWhitman\u2019s First Congregational welcomes its first woman pastor<\/a>\u201d by Beth McDermott, Reporter assisted by AI, featuring alumnus Rev. Patricia Berry (’21), published on February 12, 2026.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

First Congregational Church of Whitman celebrated a historic moment with the installation of the Rev. Patricia Berry as its settled pastor. Berry is the first woman to hold this position in the church’s 219-year history, according to a community announcement.<\/p>\n

The installation service brought together clergy and community members from the local area to welcome Berry and affirm the shared covenant among her, the congregation and the wider United Church of Christ.\"\"<\/p>\n

First Congregational Church of Whitman has a history of mentoring and supporting women in ministry. Long before it was common for churches to welcome women into leadership roles, the church wrote into its bylaws a commitment to providing opportunities for all ministry candidates to gain experience. This practice continues to be a core value of the congregation.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the symbolic moments of Berry’s installation was the illumination of the church steeple, which had been dark for years. At Berry’s initiative, the steeple was lit as a symbol of hope and welcome, reflecting the church’s ongoing mission to serve the community and light the way forward in faith.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE ON THE THE WEBSITE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from MSN’s article \u201cWhitman\u2019s First Congregational welcomes its first woman pastor\u201d by Beth McDermott, Reporter assisted by AI, featuring alumnus Rev. Patricia Berry (’21), published on February 12, 2026.\u00a0 First Congregational Church of Whitman celebrated a historic moment with the installation of the Rev. Patricia Berry as its settled pastor. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13877,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[200],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59908,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59905\/revisions\/59908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}