Eunice Blanchard Poethig (January 16, 1930 – March 25, 2018) was an American Presbyterian minister, national leader and educator.Presbyterian Historical Society. "Eunice Poethig, A Champion for Women," Presbyterian Historical Society, March 1, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Davis, Henry L. and Dave Condren. "Rev. Eunice Poethig Gets Top Church Job, Leader of Presbytery of WNY Will Take a National Position," The Buffalo News, November 6, 1993. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard. "Prayer and Praise in Ancient Israel." Liturgy, 9, No. 1, 1990, p. 34–41. She served the Presbyterian Church (USA) as national Director of the Congregational Ministries Division, Executive Presbyter of Western New York, and Associate Executive of the Presbytery of Chicago, and spent fifteen years as an urban mission worker in the Philippines.Cardinale Anthony. "Presbyterians Deny Key Post to Rev. Poethig," The Buffalo News, December 13, 1997. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Condren, Dave. "2 Churches Prepare Last Services as One Charts Rebirth Next Week," The Buffalo News, May 27, 1990. Retrieved September 17, 2020. She was one of a growing number of women ordained as clergy and appointed to prominent positions in the church, a trend that accelerated during her leadership in the 1980s and 1990s.Cardinale Anthony. "A Higher Calling After a Long and Sometimes Bitter Exclusion, More Women Are Entering the Ministry and Finding Acceptance," The Buffalo News, May 7, 1995. Retrieved September 17, 2020.The Buffalo News. "More Women Assume Roles as Church Pastors," The Buffalo News, April 30, 1989.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard. "'Women’s Ordination: Past, Present & Future' DVD," The Presbyterian Outlook, November 27, 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
Poethig's ministry revolved around progressive issues such as advocacy for women clergy, full inclusion of LGBTQ and other minorities, economic justice, and making churches responsive to contemporary concerns and culture.LaGrone, Niki. "Eunice Poethig Papers Illuminate her Advocacy for Women," Presbyterian Historical Society, in Chimes, Summer 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Lueck, Thomas J. "Saving Jobs In Buffalo: Victory and Loss," The New York Times, Feb. 17, 1987, Sect. B, p. 1. Retrieved September 17, 2020.O'Brien, Barbara. "100 At Conference Zero In On Ways To Battle Joblessness, Hopelessness," The Buffalo News, May 8, 1994. Retrieved September 17, 2020. She served during an era of heightened "culture wars" in the church and the United States generally, and took positions on social issues and sexual and gender inclusion that some groups considered controversial.Condren, Dave. "Religious Groups Put to the Test in Taking Positions on Abortion," The Buffalo News, August 5, 1989. Retrieved September 17, 2020.O'Brien, Barbara. "Calling of Lesbian-as Co-Pastor Rocks Church; Presbyterians in Rochester Force a Church Trial," The Buffalo News, May 2, 1992. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Condren, Dave. "WNY Presbytery Asks National Church to Retain Rev. Poethig, Backs Shift Tied to Stand on Gays," The Buffalo News, January 31, 1998. Retrieved September 17, 2020. As a feminist biblical scholar and hymnodist, Poethig produced research, books and articles on topics including the victory song tradition of women in ancient Israel, the ordination of women, and Filipino hymns.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard. "Celebrating turning points in women's ordination," PC(USA) News, October 23, 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard. The Victory Song Tradition of the Women of Israel, Ph.D. dissertation, Union Theological Seminary, 1985.Watts, James Washington. Psalm and Story: Inset Hymns in Hebrew Narrative, A&C Black, 1992, p. 38.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard and Jan Deats, Ely Santiago, Moises Cerdinio. Everybody, I love you: a Philippine folk song book, Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1971. Retrieved September 17, 2020. She was married to Richard Poethig, also a Presbyterian minister, for sixty-six years and died in Chicago in 2018, at age 88.Condren, Dave. "As Clergy, Area Couples Often Lead Double Lives Pressures, Spiritual Rewards Increase with Husband and Wife Sharing Vocation," The Buffalo News, September 3, 1989. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
Personal life Poethig was born Eunice Blanchard in 1930 in Hempstead, New York and raised in Buffalo, New York and Dayton, Ohio. Her father, Werner "Pete" Blanchard, was an inventor, pilot and head of the Aeroproducts Division of General Motors; in 1948, he died in a private plane crash at age 48.Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "Aeroproducts Propeller, 3-Blade, Metal," Collection. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Kinney, Jeremy R. Reinventing the Propeller, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2020. After his death, her mother, Juliet Stroh Blanchard, traveled extensively and built a career producing filmstrips for the United Nations and UNESCO; she later became a popular writer, lecturer and leader in the League of Women Voters, and in her sixties, joined the Peace Corps.Ohio Department of Higher Education. "Biography of Juliet Stroh Blanchard," Ohio Library and Information Network. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Poethig, Richard. On the Sidewalks of New York, Richard Poethig, 2012.
Poethig graduated from DePauw University in 1951 and earned a master's degree in Christian Education from Union Theological Seminary in 1952.Presbyterian Historical Society. Guide to the Eunice Blanchard Poethig papers , Biographical note, Eunice Blanchard Poethig papers, RG 516, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Retrieved September 17, 2020. She met Richard Poethig at the seminary and they married following their graduations. After his ordination in the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA), they moved to Buffalo, New York. The Poethigs had three children—Richard Scott, Kathryn (Kerry) and Johanna—before relocating to Manila in 1957 to work through the new Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations (COEMAR) with the United Church of Christ of the Philippines.Alba, Victoria. "Sino Ka? Ano Ka? Contemporary Art," in Pinay Power: Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience, Melinda L. de Jesús (ed.), New York: Routledge, 2005, p. 297–9.Herbert, Susan. "Muralist Johanna Poethig," San Francisco Independent, January 19, 1989, p. 13.Viana, France. "Her Mission Was in the Cards," Positively Filipino, January 18, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2020. They later had two more children, Margaret and Erika. Unlike most Americans in Manila, who sent their children to American private schools, they educated their children at local private and parochial schools, where they learned Tagalog and developed an identification with Filipino culture, history and social perspectives.
In 1972, the family resettled in the United States in Chicago, where Richard directed the institute on the Church in Urban-Industrial Society (ICUIS) at McCormick Theological Seminary. Eunice continued her graduate work at McCormick, earning Master of Divinity (1975) and Master of Sacred Theology (1977) degrees; she completed a PhD in Old Testament studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1985.
In 1979, Poethig was ordained to ministry in the PC(USA), and shortly after, named Associate Executive of the Presbytery of Chicago. As she attained positions of increasing leadership in the church, the family relocated, first to Buffalo and then to Louisville, Kentucky, site of the PC(USA)'s national headquarters. In their later years, the Poethigs lived in Hyde Park, Chicago.
Fraternal worker in Manila (1957–1972) The Poethigs were part of a new, decolonializing model of American mission work in the post-war years that emphasized partnership between churches in the global north and south.Poethig, Richard. "A Place to Live: The Struggle for Housing in Manila," Presbyterian Historical Society, The National Archives of the PC(USA), May 11, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Poethig, Richard. "The Missionary as Change Agent," Presbyterian Historical Society, The National Archives of the PC(USA), February 9, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Poethig, Richard. "The Changing Nature of Mission," Presbyterian Historical Society, The National Archives of the PC(USA), August 3, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2020. American Presbyterians signaled this shift by referring to themselves as "fraternal workers" called by national churches to help address relevant needs. COEMAR's American fraternal workers in the Philippines—a former U.S. colony that had only become a republic in 1946—were made acutely aware that American mission was entangled with the colonial legacy of U.S. military, business and culture.
The Poethigs lived in metro Manila between 1957 and 1972, a period of dramatic change in terms of urban growth, industrialization and sovereignty movements in the developing world.Filiatreau, John and Evan Silverstein, Jerry L. Van Marter. "Conference Explores Past, Present, Future of Missions Overseas," PC(USA) News, May 14, 1999. Retrieved September 28, 2020. Richard contributed to the new field of "urban-industrial evangelism," which focused on social justice, labor practices and fair housing issues. Eunice contributed as a Christian educator developing material more culturally relevant for a Philippine context. She worked for the Ellinwood Malate Church and taught at the Ellinwood Bible School (1957–61) and Philippine Women's University (1962–8). Later, she assisted in broader capacities for the Philippine National Council Churches and as editor for a new publishing house, New Day Publications (1969–72).
While in Manila, Poethig pursued what would be a lifelong interest in the role of music in spiritual life. Her research as a hymnodist resulted in her first published works, songbooks for a younger generation that explore Filipino hymns: Everybody I Love You (1971) and Let's Sing Christmas (1972).Poethig, Eunice Blanchard and J. Dadap, Jan Deats. Let's Sing Christmas, Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1972. Retrieved September 17, 2020. She also co-edited the Filipino Family Cookbook (1972) with Eva Villanueva.Poethig, Eunice Blanchard and Eva S. Villanueva. Filipino family cookbook, Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1972. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
Work in the Presbyterian Church (USA) Poethig contributed to the PC(USA) as a feminist advocate for women clergy, full inclusion of LGBTQ and marginalized groups, and bridge-building across different communities. As a church administrator, she served two presbyteries that function as regional governing bodies, in the positions of Associate Executive of the Presbytery of Chicago (1979–85) and Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Western New York (1986–93); she was among the first ordained woman to serve in the leadership of a presbytery. In 1993, she became Director of the newly created Congregational Ministries Division (1993–7), then one of the church's three most powerful national leadership positions.Mid-Atlantic Presbyterian. "Kearns to lead GA national ministries," Mid-Atlantic Presbyterian, November/December 1993. In the 2000s, Poethig served on the boards of the Stony Point Center—one of three major PC(USA) conference centers—and the International Association of Women Ministers, where she was elected president in 2011.McGinley, Emily. "Eunice Poethig elected President of the International Association of Women Ministers," McCormick Theological Seminary, February 27, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2020.Van Marter, Jerry L. " Notes about people," PC(USA), News, December 13, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2020.