U.S. Assemblies of God elects first woman executive in more than a century
Donna L. Barrett is stepping into a top leadership role in the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
The top U.S. board of the Assemblies of God unanimously elected its first woman general secretary in the Pentecostal denomination’s more than 100-year history.
Donna L. Barrett, 58, the lead pastor of a church in Independence, Ohio, will step into the third-ranking position in Assemblies leadership after general superintendent and assistant general superintendent, the denomination announced April 23. The religious body has 3.2 million adherents in the U.S. and 68 million worldwide, making it the largest Pentecostal denomination.
R. Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, said that the Assemblies of God, founded in 1914, has had a “fascinating history” of women’s leadership, with women leading congregations and speaking from pulpits in its early days and later often finding their roles restricted.
