Sir, thank you for the welcome. Thank you for the welcome.
I'm going to just sort of read what I have written. I will
pause occasionally, but I really want to focus my remarks today
on Susie Cunningham. Stanley looks like I didn't even put her
name properly up at the top, but let me just start with this and
let you know who Susie is. I hope some of you have
encountered her in the past.
By the end, I hope that you will understand why she seems, in my
estimation, worthy of this time, our time, and of her for her
contributions to the topic of the conference.
In 2220, years ago, Susie Cunningham Stanley, who was then
the professor of historical theology at Messiah College,
published Holy Boldness, Women's preachers, autobiographies, and
the sanctified self. In this volume she analyzed
autobiographies of 34 American Wesleyan Holiness Preachers, Dr.
Stanley or Susie.
As she is commonly called, examine these 19th century
personal accounts, looking for something that she called the
sanctified self. Of course, theologically rooted in the
Westland Holiness tradition, she summarized the distinctive
doctrine that compels this tradition as a distinct second
work of grace following conversion, in which the heart
is cleansed of inbred sin and filled.
With God's love, and then for some in the Westland Holiness
tradition, including Susie, this sanctification experience came
with a parallel intensification of prophetic authority which
derives from the Holy Spirit. Stanley found as she looked
through these many autobiographies, that these
women claimed for themselves in varying ways, a graced.
Autonomous self that enabled them to act as public leaders in
ways impossible prior to their sanctification.
20 years have passed since Susie published that book. Susie's now
retired, you see her picture up here on the slide, and she was
recently placed on Hospice. She never wrote her own
autobiography of her sanctified self, and she notes in her book
that most Wesleyan Holiness women's autobiographies offer
very little factual information or self analysis.
Instead, they offer glimpses of their self understanding.
For me as an academic in this same Wesleyan holiness tradition
in the United States.
And a friend of Susies. I know of the great debt that women in
my tradition owe to Susie, and this conference seemed an appt
moment to gather up some glimpses directly from her while
I could. Earlier this year, Susie and I met three times via
zoom. I posed her, I posed 3 open-ended questions in advance,
and then I recorded the interviews so the remainder of
what I'm going to offer today.
Our glimpses summarized from Susie's many articles, her books
and notes shared with me, as well as the interview, and
anything that you hear rendered in the first person are direct
quotes from her.
I hope you've had a chance to look through these many
accolades. Susie has had a remarkable career and I don't
have time to go through them all, but I wanted you to have
sort of the overview as ioffer what I can.
In her book Holy Boldness, she wrote that sanctification
fosters this graced, autonomous self. So I asked her, looking
back on your life, Susie, tell me your sanctification story and
how it freed you to engage in prophetic.
Leadership Susie Cunningham was born on May 3rd, 1948 into a
churchgoing family. She was baptized at 2 weeks in the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Ashland, KY, and two years later
her parents transferred their membership to a nearby
congregation of the Church of God Anderson. IN it was that
church, the Church of God Anderson IN that instilled in
Susie an ethic of neighbor love.
And infused a theological heritage that supported women in
ministry and advocated for the marginalized poor, Susie
acknowledged when I asked her this question she said, well, my
whole life is my sanctification story. As a 6 year old child,
she report responded to an altar call to claim salvation during a
revival service. She recalls the next spiritual step at the age
of 13 of age in.
A church in Newton Falls, OH, which she said was a hotbed of
holiness and Reverend Lily McCutcheon was the pastor, Susie
recalled. Lily McCutcheon was the conservative voice of the
whole denomination and a very good preacher, she said. I have
a snapshot in my mind of being on the left side of the church
wearing a Black Hat, little Black Hat and gloves.
And when I heard the invitation, I went to the altar. That is all
I remember.
Looking back now, I know she preached. Phoebe, Phoebe Palmer.
Shorter way, consecration, faith, testimony. I had no
struggle. I took it for what it was. Sanctification was
expected.
In the ensuing years, Susie's leadership skills and
self-expression were encouraged to participation in music
preaching youth group. She remembers encountering a few
more women exemplars from her early years, like Pauline
Maxwell, A Holiness advanced evangelist at Camp Sychar, a
camp meeting she attended as a teenager.
With these women in mind during her adolescence, Susie could
only imagine herself as a future missionary in Central America,
and so she pursued Spanish language study in preparation.
She remembers feeling no limits to her gifts or freedoms to lead
in the church. But when she stepped outside of her church
through youth, youth for Christ, and got involved in the more
evangelical settings, she found that not all Christians share
her optimistic and liberative Wesleyan holiness, views of
women's public leadership. It was there, among a larger
Christian community, that she was first called a heretic.
And that's where she first encountered holiness and
sanctification as negative terms, and that puzzled her. She
went home and said to her parents, I believe what you
taught me.
How can I be a heretic? Her parents explained that not all
Christians shared their holiness beliefs, but she could stand
firm in them. For Susie, she says that being holy and
holiness meant something optimistic, free.
Empowered.
And that's how she saw herself in God.
In her 20s she married John Stanley, a minister in the
Church of God Anderson, and John was her champion.
Together they had two children, Mandy and Mike, and home. With
them. Susie Stanley began to read about Christian activism in
the 19th century, as well as publications by 20th century
feminist writers. Susie remembers. In 1973, while my
children napped, she told me, I began to read the 6th volume,
history of women suffrage by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. At all.
My reading had nothing to do with religion.
At the time, I was interested in what would become known as
women's studies, but that field had not yet that field did not
yet exist. As I read, I was so surprised to find 45 women
clergy, mostly Unitarian Universalists, mentioned in the
earliest volumes. When John came home and saw how much I had read
one day, he asked me what you do, knock out the children.
Susie couldn't put it down.
She read and she read and she read. Susie traces her call to
ministry and subsequent activism to a conference she attended
with her infant daughter Mandy Young mother who heard a litany
constructed of quotes from 19th century Christian women, the
activist voices of abolitionist Sarah Grimke, Methodist founder
of the WCTU Francis Willard, and Alma White the Fire Brown.
Firebrand, founder of Pillar of Fire that we heard about some
this morning.
They were recited at the Evangelical Women's Caucus
Conference in November of 1975 in Washington, DC. The calls for
women equality embedded in these four mothers voices awakened in
Susie what she calls a twofold call. First, to challenge the
church to mirror Christ in treating all people as equal,
and secondly to share the gospel with the.
Unchurched or de Churched women declaring that true liberation,
liberation can only be found in Christ.
Susie, who was becoming an academic, soon found a
methodology or a lens that has focused much of her academic
work and human liberation in a feminist perspective. Written by
Letty Russell sit, Stanley, read the phrase usable past, a term
first used by literary critic Van Wick Brooks.
This usable past described the task of discovering images and
stories from history that, upon reflection, offer strength and a
common hopeful direction for present endeavors.
Looking back at the many women that Susie has uncovered who has
brought for us, and I suspect a number of people today have used
Susie's work that have built upon these stories. In the
usable past that Susie has helped assemble, she has a
favorite. She had to work hard to figure out who's her
favorite, but she picked one. She chose Emma Whittemore, a
Presbyterian, a wealthy woman who embraced.
Theology of sanctification.
Whittamore came to faith while visiting what is now the New
York City Rescue mission.
Dressed in her finery, Emma Witter Whittemore knelt with
those she described as quote river thieves, drunkards,
gambled gamblers and abandoned women of the streets.
Finding yourself disoriented, Whittamore heard more directly
from these women's lives and came to understand.
Quote often these girls are far more sinned against and more
cruelly censured than they deserve.
End Quote Whittemore would lead to see to see 97 doors of hope
homes for fallen and outcast women formed across the country.
Whittemore's philosophy continues to resonate with Susie
across the centuries. They mirror her own Holiness
convictions, Whittemore declared. Quote we will never
forcibly restrain such girls from leaving the home. No bolts,
no bars.
Are ever upon our doors only. Our only restraint is love. If
that doesn't keep them with us, nothing else is likely to win
them to Christ. Susie summarized. What a more emphasis
on love illustrates the social holiness approach to ministering
among those whom Christ has identified as neighbor, the
primary approach to social holiness. Work is one of love,
not one of judgment.
Susie was involved from the early 70s and evangelicals for
social action and the Evangelical Women's Caucus, now
called Christian Feminism. Today, when challenges arose to
widen the scope of that organization beyond the
empowerment of women, Susie who struck held strong pro ERA
views, supported abortion rights, and privately affirmed
monogamous gay relationships stepped away.
From these organizations, she viewed the power dynamics and
special interests not rooted in a theology of love and
empowerment, and it was her call to work on focusing on women's
leadership and ministry.
Susie began teaching historical theology in 1983 at what was
then Western Evangelical Seminary. She finished her
dissertation on Alma White and the Pillar of Fire in 1987 and
moved in 1995 to Messiah College. For years, Susie was
the only woman academic who attended the Wesleyan
Theological Society meetings. After such a meeting, a student
came up to her and asked why isn't there a place?
For Wesleyan Holiness women to gather the dream for the
Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy Conference began.
38 years have transpired since Susie founded the Wesleyan
Holiness Women Clergy Conference. She was the singular
force that brought together denominational leaders from, at
that time, 7 denominations to collaborate in a brand new way.
In Glorieta, NM, at a Southern Baptist centre. Ironically, they
didn't tell them it was a conference for ordained women.
375 women in ministry from 7 denominations gathered. The
goals were to create a hub for networking, mentoring,
inspiring, supporting, researching and resourcing.
The most recent gathering of this organization was held in
March of this year in Grapevine, TX, and nearly 600 women
attended from the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God,
Anderson, the Westland Church, and the Free Methodist Church.
When I ask Susie about prophetic leadership in our second
conversation, she told me this.
In preparing for this interview, I really resisted thinking go
myself as a prophet.
But as I reviewed all the justice activities of my life, I
see they are prophetic.
The prophetic word that I have to offer, Susie says, is this.
Sexism is sin.
Sometimes it has been the hardest thing for people to hear
or to deal with sexism. Sexism wouldn't qualify in their
definition of sin.
Thinking back, I see myself more as an activist academic.
I didn't put my social Holiness activities on my resume. Maybe I
didn't see them as a part of my professional life or they
weren't a part of getting tenure. So I left those
activities off. I wish I'd listed them all. They show who I
am.
I call myself someone who promotes social holiness.
Russian Bush used the term social gospel and social justice
as rooted in the Kingdom of God. Wesley used the term social
holiness and love. I would argue the distinctions aren't really
that great. I always came back in my teaching about holiness
and told students it all boils down to love. Where do I fit
into the prophetic category?
Certainly in the category of being misunderstood, attitudes
have changed some, but some people could never hear what I
have had to say because I was a woman.
And like the prophets, I have wholly anger. I have never
written about this, but I have enough holy anger for an entire
city, and it propels me why can't a woman be angry about
immigration and 27 other things? We need more women to be angry
and act, but not sin.
The trope about women not being angry is being used to silence
us.
Anger is a part of me. We need more women to speak and to write
about this. I was first called Susie, says a prophet at my
ordination by a man on the committee. We had had some
struggles.
Being a woman was OK, but being a feminist was not. I told them
who I was because it was going to come out anyway.
When I was called a prophet at my ordination, I knew I had
educated them about my calling, and it had come from God.
After the first Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy
Conference, Susie edited a volume called honoring the call.
In her introduction, she focuses on Miriam's Prophet of Israel
alongside her brothers Aaron and Moses, and Susie traces the
biblical narrative of God's call on women for prophetic
leadership to Exodus, and noted the way that many of the
Wesleyan holiness foremothers, Fannie McDowell Hunter,
Catherine Booth also had rooted their theology of call here.
City Susie pointed out three takeaways. First, preaching
arises from a call directly from God as expressed in Scripture.
Secondly, women in the Westland Holiness tradition can stand
firm in a movement that declares the Holy Spirit calls and gifts
women and men alike. The Holy Spirit does not have a list of
gifts for women and a list of gifts for men. The gifts are for
everybody.
And sanctification empowers and nourishes all to use their
gifts. And thirdly, we are different in our callings, yet
there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.
All are one in Christ escalations.
Repeats.
At the end of this introduction, Susie referenced the work of
Robert Bella, calling on Miriam and our Wesleyan Holiness
foremothers to quote be a community of memory so that we
can be a community of hope today.
In honoring our call, Susie does not shy away from noting that
when Marian and Aaron disagreed with Big Brother Moses, Miriam
alone was punished and sent outside the camp.
Have our profits been heard? She wondered.
Or have they been pushed outside the camp?
So is holy boldness enough?
I asked Susie. What do you see?
What would you offer to Wesleyan Holiness Women in ministry
today? What about that stained glass ceiling?
40 years ago we were talking about the problem of placement.
Has anything changed? Whose stories, which women continue to
be voices that motivate you?
When I asked her this question about.
Improvement or progress? She said. I don't feel we've made
near enough progress.
I could get depressed.
But there is some progress. I wish someone would do a study of
Wesleyan holiness wouldn't clergy. And look at the women
who've been involved that have become the seminary presidents,
professors, bishops, clergy. There is a small presence of
women present in the hierarchy of our churches. There are a few
in institutional administration.
That they weren't there before. But we are not near where we
should be. We can't discount the people that are clergy now. I
hear stories from pastors who say I heard so and so in 1998,
and she was such an influence. These stories have changed.
Attitudes must be counted.
In the progress made over 40 years, Susie sees that Wesley
and Holiness women clergy provided a place for Wesleyan
Holiness women to network, learn and see other women empowered in
ministry. Now denominations. Many of them sponsor their own
conferences and have internal councils.
And thankfully, social media has done a lot to isolate, to lessen
the isolation so many keenly felt in the earlier decades. And
yes, as we've heard earlier in the presentation, the number of
women clergy has increased. For example, when Wesleyan holiness
women clergy first started nearly 40 years ago, the Church
of the Nazarene had less than 2% of its women clergy as senior or
solo.
Pastors in 2019, the most recent numbers I have, 11% of women are
so low for senior pastors, 38% were associate pastors at the
time. Sadly, 40 years ago, the problem of placement was named
as a priority challenge to be addressed, finding that church
to serve and leadership roles, especially the paid ones and
especially when your life trajectory does not follow.
The assumptions.
This continues to remain a challenge in 2019.
Over 20%, more than one in five of all ordained women in the
Church of the Nazarene remain unassigned.
The status. The stats from other denominations were hard for me
to come by.
Susie told me the story of what encourages her and it's the
story of her daughter Mandy Miller, who is a minister in the
United Methodist Church. When Mandy was looking for a church
to serve in the Church of God Anderson, she had completed
seminary and did 5 internships and had all the right
connections.
And she could not find a pastoral role.
She switched to dominations.
One with an appointment system, and she's now serving two
churches in Reading, PA, with active ministries to immigrants
and the local prison. Mandy is, for Susie, a sign of hope.
Mandy's church is now Susie's church. She rejoices in being in
a church where God is preached and understood in a language
that is not exclusively male, and in a church that has
leadership that is not exclusively male. She sees the
culture as having made some progress with women's
professional roles and responsibilities. But the church
is moving forward in fits and in starts.
As I reviewed Susie's legacy and had these wonderful
conversations with her, I found myself asking.
How is the sanctified self being formed within the church today?
Susie said. It was expected. I wanted to be sanctified.
Everyone I knew.
Had experienced a sense of sanctification. We were looking
to be empowered, and the Holy Spirit does that.
I was asking, is the church less afraid of prophetic authority
and righteous anger today?
Are women ministers required to be quiet and patient?
When something righteously wrong sits in front of them, is holy
boldness enough to move the church beyond having a small
presence present?
Who will speak out and call out any group that trains and
ordains but won't place or promote?
Who will plainly say sexism is sin?
One of the contributors to honoring the call wrote
sometimes a look back is a step forward. Perhaps looking back at
the prophetic, pioneering life of Susie Cunningham, Stanley
will compel others to take heed of the usable past and step in
to the power of the Holy Spirit, and perhaps collect 34
autobiographies from sanctified women in the 20th century.
Because they were there. Thank you.