Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 33:4 (Fall 2019)
Article: CBE’s Tribute To Gretchen Gaebelein Hull (1930–2019)
Author: Mimi Haddad

CBE’s Tribute To Gretchen Gaebelein Hull (1930–2019)

Mimi Haddad

President, CBE International

Gretchen G. Hull was instrumental in the founding of CBE. A woman with few equals, she was a gifted mathematician, pianist, author, editor, philosopher, and church leader. One of CBE’s founders, as well as a board member and early pioneering editor of Priscilla Papers, Gretchen was brilliant, gutsy, and never afraid to speak out. It was in her Manhattan, New York, home that CBE’s Statement on Men, Women, and Biblical Equality (see https://cbeinternational.org/content/statement-men-women-and-biblical-equality) was drafted, later to be published in the April 1990 issue of Christianity Today. It garnered nearly 3,000 CBE members within a few months. Thus launched Gretchen’s work as a theological advocate for women’s equal service.

Traveling the world to expound Scripture’s support for women’s shared leadership, Gretchen’s book, Equal to Serve: Women and Men Working Together Revealing the Gospel (Baker, 1998) quickly rose to the top of CBE’s Best Sellers list. She also contributed articles to various Bible commentaries and Christian publications, including theological books such as The Global God (Baker, 1998) and Applying the Scriptures (Academie, 1987). For decades, Gretchen was a prominent speaker at churches, evangelical seminaries, colleges, and parachurch organizations.

The daughter of Frank E. Gaebelein—an early co-editor of Christianity Today and the first headmaster of The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York—Gretchen grew up on the North Shore of Long Island. She attended Branksome Hall in Toronto and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1950. She then pursued graduate studies in philosophy at Columbia University, where she met her future husband, Philip G. Hull, a law student at Columbia.

The last time I saw Gretchen was five years ago. We spent the better part of the day engrossed, as we often were, in a rich exchange of ideas, from history, to philosophy, theology, and current events. Yet, by far, my favorite memory of Gretchen was an afternoon we enjoyed together in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania. While waiting for her to arrive, I was playing the second movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” Hearing the doorbell, I dashed to open the door. Gretchen smiled, said “Hello” quickly, and walked to the piano. She sat down and finished the piece exactly where I had left off. I was delighted with her skilled “performance” and her love of all things classical.

Gretchen often regaled me with stories of her devoted Christian parents. She told me once that her parents taught her and her siblings to discern and develop their God-given gifts in service to a hurting world. What matter...