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Citation: Laird, Rebecca. “Is Holy Boldness Enough? A Retrospective on the Work 
of Dr. Susie C. Stanley, Scholar and Founder of the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy 
Conference.” April 26, 2022, Toronto, Ontario,: MPEG-3, 27:22 min.

***** Begin Content ******


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 a
bortion 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.


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