Caroline Ann Knight was the assistant pastor at one of Harlem's major churches for nearly seven years when she began to look around for a church of her own, a path that many men before her had taken. But Ms. Knight found that none of the big Baptist churches in Harlem were willing to put a woman in the top job.
Instead, Ms. Knight took a handful of members with her from Canaan Baptist Church and founded her own congregation, Philadelphia Baptist Church, a few blocks away. She went from preaching to 1,200 people on Sunday mornings to preaching to fewer than 100.
Advocates for women in the ministry say that Ms. Knight's story is typical of the experience of black female ministers around the country who find an assistant pastor's job a track to a dead end.
Female Ministers See Sexism
Increasingly, many such women are establishing their own churches or taking over small, struggling congregations that men have passed over.
''This is certainly not a story about lack of ability,'' said the Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Grant, director of Black Women in Church and Society, an educational organization based in Atlanta that advocates the full participation of women in the church. ''Some of the most competent people in the ministry today are women.''
''The issue is the same as it is in the larger society: sexism,'' she added. ''Men don't have to make it in the same way women have to make it. Women have to create their own.''
A survey of female ministers by the National Council of Churches showed that as of 1986, there were 20,736 women, representing almost 8 percent of the nation's clergy. This was double the figure for 1977. The survey did not give a racial breakdown.
Role for Black Men
The experience of individual denominations gives a strong indication of how black women are faring. According to the United Methodist Church, for instance, in 1989 there were 217 black women ministers out of a total of 39,700. And in the Episcopal Church, there are 46 black women out of a total of 14,694 clergy.
Among the historically black denominations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church estimated that of its 19,000 ministers, a third were women; the Progressive National Baptist Association has one woman among its 989 ministers.
While white female pastors say they have some of the same problems in achieving major pulpits, black women interviewed said that their plight was intensified by the fact that the church has traditionally been the primary vehicle for black men to exercise both religious and political power.
Even more so than white men, who have other outlets to exercise leadership, black men in the pulpit are unwilling to cede their position to women, the black women interviewed said.
'No Place for Me to Go'
''Folks don't ever give up power willingly,'' said the Rev. Sharon Austin, who is 35 years old and has been an assistant pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for seven years. Like Ms. Knight in New York, Ms. Austin has been searching for a pulpit of her own without much success.
''After all those years at Canaan, there was no place for me to go,'' said Ms. Knight, who is 33. ''I had been considered for other pulpits, but I am convinced that the only reason I didn't get them was because of my gender.''
When Ms. Knight opened her own church 18 months ago, she took the name Philadelphia from the Book of Revelation. The congregation rents space from the National Black Theater at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Abilities and Expectations
Ms. Knight's preaching abilities have been praised by many, including her former mentor, the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, who is the senior pastor at Canaan. But Dr. Walker said many young female ministers, including Ms. Knight, were better at preaching than at working with congregants. ''These women see only the Sunday morning hour, the Sunday stage business,'' he said,. ''This is only a very small piece of my ministry.''
But advocates for women took issue with that assessment and argued that women were better equipped to nurture and teach than men.
Dr. Walker said women also came to their positions as assistant pastors with too many expectations.
''What happens is that these women want to go immediately to major positions in major churches,'' said Dr. Walker, who is 60 years old and has been at Canaan for 23 years. ''That is not going to happen. Just like women who go into corporate life do not immediately become C.E.O.'s.''
Dr. Walker said that young female ministers often run into opposition from older female church members who are accustomed to a male presence in the pulpit. ''The feminist stance does not turn off the men,'' he said. ''It turns off the women.''
'Our Experience Has Been Good'
Dr. Walker said he began as an enthusiastic supporter of women in the ministry but is more cautious today. ''I've talked with other pastors who were emancipated enough to hire women as assistant pastors who have not had happy experiences because of this feminist garbage they bring with them. They do not understand the issue of seniority rank. There can't be but one pastor.'' Other pastors report that they have had no such conflicts with female assistants. The Rev. Joseph L. Roberts Jr., Ms. Austin's senior pastor at Ebenezer, said, ''Our experience has been good.''