In Ghana, there are more churches than schools, and women make up a majority of congregants - yet men occupy pulpits and higher leadership roles across the nation. This body of work explores the positionality of women in the Ghanaian church landscape and the roles they play through the life and lens of a female ordained minister and the congregation she co-leads.


Reverend Georgina Boateng is one of the few women ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. She holds a Master’s in Divinity, and a Master’s in Theology with plans to pursue a PhD. As an Associate Minister at the Greenwich Meridian Congregation in Tema, Ghana, she co-leads a flock heavily populated by women.


Despite being one of the first churches established, the Presbyterian Church only began ordaining women as ministers in the 1970s. Its contemporary landscape still sees a significant imbalance in the ratio of ordained male ministers to ordained female ministers, standing at roughly 10:1 in the church’s registry. The Presbyterian Church of Ghana has never elected a female Moderator.


The Basel Mission, the Church’s predecessor, has made commendable archival efforts in documenting the existence and work of European clerical wives, teachers, and their students. However, there is still an existing gap in accessible photographic documentation of Ghanaian women in church ministry, their work and the communities they impact and sustain. The first woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rose Akua Ampofo, has only one photograph to her name accessible on the internet.


“Her Pulpit” bridges this gap by providing a visual narrative that serves as a vital representation of a demographic that has, historically, been excluded, poorly documented and under-appreciated. In this world, women are at the centre of religious life, taking up space as equals in the higher leadership of the church and serving with ease, grace and strength. This body of work documents the faith, sisterhood, leadership and commitment of women to the sustenance and growth of the church. There is power in representation and power in seeing an African woman occupy a pulpit.

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