Adventist women in pastoral ministry.

In a sense, Patricia Marruffo’s Sabbath-afternoon ordination service on March 26 was business as usual for Southeastern California Conference where she serves as Pastor for Children and Families at the Azure Hills Church. Southeastern, after all, has been ordaining qualified women to pastoral ministry since March 2012, and long before that issued the same ordained-commissioned credentials to both men and women.
But the decor in the foyer of the Azure Hills Church was the first indication that this service had an eye on the larger picture, literally. A large world map stood in front of the doors to the sanctuary. On the map, pins represented the women who serve as Seventh-day Adventist pastors around the world. The ordination service was an intentionally global event through which Marruffo wanted to highlight and celebrate all of Adventism’s women ministers.
There is a private Facebook group for Adventist women pastors that has hundreds of members created and administered by Nandi Fleming of South Africa. Through that group, Marruffo began compiling a list of Adventist women who pastor around the world. In the ordination ceremony, Marruffo paid tribute to them all. She said:
“I want to honor and recognize my sisters in ministry across the world—female Seventh-day Adventist pastors—women whose call to gospel ministry is special, meaningful and sacred.”
She honed in on the breadth of the female pastorate in Adventism: “3176 female pastors in China, 15 in Cuba, 12 in South Korea, 6 in Japan, and countless others. Women whom God has called and continues to call to teach, preach and lead,” she said.
“Today from our corner of the world in Southeastern California Conference, I wish to acknowledge the ministry of these beautiful ladies,” Marruffo stated.
According to an article in Spectrum Magazine