So our talk this afternoon saved, sanctified and filled
with the spirit narrative accounts of early free Methodist
women evangelists.
Timer on.
Alright, so first couple slides. I'm not really going to focus on
a lot. I hope to have time for questions at the end, but this
is a lot of the different women I'm researching. I'm trying to
really kind of find the narratives of women within the
Methodist tradition who before I started researching them or
primarily just like names and conference minutes.
So what I'll talk about today is some of their stories, as well
as kind of the conflict surrounding ordination within
the Free Methodist Church. The denomination, if you're not
familiar with the history, was found in 1860. When we look at
kind of the roles women were allowed 1878 women were granted
the ability to become licensed conference evangelist. That
didn't give them the right to marry, baptize, or serve
communion, but they could travel and preach. They could also be
appointed, although.
It's nearly seven, really. No one was appointed to a circuit.
1886. We began to see that they were also allowed to serve as
delegates representing their annual conferences. And 1890 at
the General Conference, it really kind of the debate on
ordination really kind of came to a head. It was sent back then
to the annual conference. Four years later in 1894, they
addressed it again and the denomination voted it down.
However, the issue did not die there. I'm talking primarily.
Today, about 1890 through about 1910, women were granted a kind
of additional roles. By 1907, they were allowed to be
ministerial delegates, which was the same level as what an
ordained elder could be for their quarterly and annual
conferences, and they could serve as a local pastor. By
1910, they were also allowed to be ordained as a Deacon nest,
but they were not granted ordinations elder until 1974.
So from here I'm going to kind of read my paper, go a little
bit more traditional academic.
And I'll start off with the story of one of my favorites,
Doctor Anna Grant. So in 1897, Doctor Anna Grant traveled alone
to Aurelia on the northwestern edge of Iowa, folding a weeklong
revival service at the invite of some in the community. As her
November 8th, 1897 report and the Free Methodist notes, not
everyone in the community wanted the services, as it was a busy
time of the year. But after holding a vote asking how many
one of the Holiness experience to continue, the response was
overwhelming. Grant notes that in a week.
6 individuals experienced either the blessing or the pardon of
purity as men repented from tobacco and women from their
vanity. As she said, I find hungry souls everywhere. They
are sheep without a shepherd, and this doctrine and experience
of holiness is as foreign as though it came from heaven
lately. Grant concludes the report, hopeful she can organize
a few months class in a real yeah. Before she leaves, she
ends urging other free Methodist to follow her. As she is the
only free Methodist in the area working her report is just one
of many.
Such reports by three Methodist women evangelist at the turn of
the 20th century. Like grants, these women were often first
contact communities had with the denomination. They blazed trails
for future outreach efforts. They were extraordinary
individuals who often balance family responsibilities and an
active ministry and grants case. She was a mother of ten
children, a trade doctor, and a licensed evangelist in the Free
Methodist Church. Family stories tell of her often leaving home
to be an evangelist or doctor, or both leaving her children.
Care of her husband, John Grant.
The ministries of these pioneering women evangelists
also coincide with the time of social reform efforts and the
Progressive Era of American history. Women were becoming
active in social causes such as suffrage and the temperance
movement. Traditionally, male dominated professions such as
law, medicine, and ministry were opening to them, and the
changing societal role women played was being hailed in
suffragist publications such as the women's column and the
Women's Journal, which regularly published commentary and
commendation on women's accomplishments.
Including women being appointed that to the pulpit.
So why have these troubling women been forgotten?
Perhaps in the case of free Methodism women evangelist, it's
maybe because they're quest for ordination was not achieved
during their lifetime, and history is often told by those
in power. As myth that this literary scholar Vicki Tolar
Collins aptly summarizes in her research on Methodist women
during and shortly after John Wesley's time, women's lives are
managed and silenced and used by those in authority, in this case
early male superintendents of the Free Methodist Church, to
enhance the organizational narrative if the narrative does
not.
Fit the image conceived by these individuals and the
contributions are often not included and are ultimately
forgotten.
And the Free Methodist Church, the 1890 and 1894 General
Conference debates on women's ordination was also coming at a
time of increased anti suffrage activity in the United States.
As historian Susan Marshall notes and her research on anti
suffrage movement of the Progressive Era, there was a
strong connection to religious chemistry by those opposed to
women's advancement.
Acknowledging women had lack of legal protection, anti
suffragists would still argue that it was a God-given decree
that women were subordinate to men, even citing Eve enticing
Adam and Genesis and their subsequent fall and the writings
of the apostle Paul and Ephesians where women were told
to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord. This quote,
natural inferiority of women was the basis of the natural rights
arguments against women in the pulpit and they're
enfranchisement into politics and other professions
traditionally held by men.
Thus, advocates of women's ordination face an uphill battle
that pitted them against underlying philosophical beliefs
of society. The quote women's fear argument was seen again and
again in the 1890 and 1894 General Conference debates and
in the pages of the denominational publication the
Free Methodist, both before and after general conferences.
Yeah, I'm right out there.
Yep.
So the service that women evangelists the Free Methodist
Church, as we kind of look at the history, was somewhat
uneven, as annual conferences were some more supportive than
others, and granting women both circuits in licenses, often the
conferences on the western frontier or in rural parts of
the South for more willing to give women a ministry circuit as
the denomination was continually short on licensed elders at the
turn of the 20th century, a topic that regularly came up in
the Free Methodist by let me go here to this one. So this is my.
Own research, which I'll talk a little bit more about how it got
to these numbers afterwards. But by 1900 there were 174 licensed
women at the AngelList and the denomination, and by 1910 there
were over 400. So you can see the numbers just keep rising and
rising. Despite this number of increase in women evangelists,
the number of women who were appointed to ministry did not
proliferate. So many women joining, becoming evangelists,
not a lot appointed.
A 1904 denominational statistic report and the Free Methodist
noted that in 1903 there were 1008 circuits to be supplied,
but only 665 ordained elders. Through a search and recruitment
of outside pastors, all but 153 circuits were staffed, and as
the author noted, the denomination also had 87 women
acting as supplies to fill those unappointed circuits.
Yet despite women's staffing circuits, some conferences
remained adamantly opposed to women in ministry.
Conferences such as the Genesee and New York conference have
been opposed to women's preaching since the denomination
was founded in 1860, even though they regularly had many licensed
female evangelists. They did not appoint any women until 1909,
and even then the appointment was for licensed female
evangelist appointed and partnership with a spouse who
was an ordained elder.
Genesee Conference Anthony work conferences lack of recognition
for license when evangelist even within their own conferences was
a source of tension and the topic of it. October 29th, 1901
editorial in the Free Methodist by female evangelist Billy
Barrenger Bill Barringer called out the conferences leadership
for refusing Emma Roberts, the daughter-in-law, the
denominations founder BT Roberts and wife of Benson Roberts, a
spot of honor at quarterly conference and camp meetings.
As they are under noted, these slights are offered her and she
must feel the lack of appreciation for the great work
she is doing for the denomination, which thus keeps
her under its oppressive heel. Roberts had been a licensed
evangelist since 1888 and was also an administrator at Chili
Seminary in New York.
I mean, look at the history of women's appointments. Most were
within the oil City Conference, Pittsburgh Conference, West
Virginia, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Oklahoma, north-south
Dakota. You can kind of see the rural Western Conference is more
favorable. These conferences regularly appointed several
women to circuits sometimes and as a couple with a spouse who
was ordained, but just as often on their own.
These women were prolific writers who regularly wrote
reports to the Free Methodist.
They used writing as a tool to promote ministry, and this was a
common rhetorical technique for Methodist women dating back to
the 18th century Methodism in England.
As historian Phyllis Mack noted in her book part of religion in
the British Enlightenment, 18th century Methodist women use
personal narrative and testimony in their sermons more than their
male counterparts. Narratives appeal to the masses who could
see their own flaws and similarities through the
narratives of women evangelists.
So while the women placing emphasis on personal struggle
and their ministry reports, what they did was also kind of
talking about deeper self reflection and awareness. And
they did this on larger scale in the writing than their male
counterparts and their ministry reports. However, this emphasis
on personal bias and repentance shouldn't be viewed as an
attempt by women to fit within the rhetoric of their naturally
weaker states, as religious historian Catherine Brekus
noted, while 19th century female preachers emphasize their
weakness.
They really sounded a self abasing as their 18th century
foremothers. As historian Zink Sawyer explains, the slight
change in narrative structure was partly due to late 19th and
early century female evangelist, some often using their position
and personal experiences to further the cause of equal
rights.
In fact, as the quote monopoly of the pulpit as the Seneca
Falls Convention termed it, this was the centre of gender
debates. And more so than any other profession. Allowing women
to be ordained was admitting a fundamental shift in populist
theology. This is why I think it was so controversial.
Free Methodist women evangelist reports are really excellent
illustrations of women kind of talking about this dual
empowerment, yet also testimony. Depending on the year, there are
a lot of different women appointed. One I want to focus
on though is Eliza Witherspoon, who was appointed to circuits in
southern Missouri and Arkansas in the early 1900s. Depending on
the year, she also had a special designation as conference
evangelist.
And what that meant was she was granted a traveling preachers
license and she essentially traveled throughout the entire
conference preaching at various churches as requested. As an
evangelist, you could be both male or female, and there were
two distinct levels of licensure within the denomination. Poorly
conference evangelists were licensed individuals who would
have to go through new about four times a year when the
poorly conference met. Whereas annual conference licenses
really went up for review once a year. The annual conference is
what?
Lies ahead.
Her ministry updates in the Free Methodist regularly emphasized
to work and starting Sunday schools and protracted meetings.
In 1895, her report from Virginia, Missouri states this
and the month of April, we held meetings for three weeks. God
sent us help, and souls were converted to God. More than 20
in #5 profess the experience of holiness.
She notes that they organized the Sunday school in Virginia
and because of the revival and she ends with the prayer that
closely resembles Psalms 77, God Keepeth each one, and my Sinner
prayer, thy way of God, is in sanctuary. Who is great is our
God, thou art that do us wonders. Use of interweaving
biblical passages into their ministry accounts and conversion
narratives was also a rhetorical device these evangelists would
use to ensure that the reader could see their connection
between their ministry and scriptural precedents.
From the slide first.
Right. So go on. So we're turning back to Anna Grant, who
I started the presentation with. She's another wonderful example.
So she served as a free Methodist evangelist for about
34 years. Besides being a trained Dr. and the mother, she
often would embark on evangelistic work wherever the
family was living. In the 1880s, she ministered at various
evangelistic events in Indiana. In 1890, was a lay delegate for
northern Indiana. At the Free Methodist General Conference,
she voted in.
Fear of automation.
For the 1890s to the 1900s, her family then moved to Iowa and
then finally to granite OK, when the territory first opens the
settlements. Eventually, by 1911, she moved to Southern
California for health reasons, and she again took up active
ministry, serving as an appointed pastor for the three
Methodist San Diego Church from 1912 to 1913.
In 1913, San Diego had a population of about 60,000, and
it was known as a destination for men who wanted to visit the
numerous houses of entertainment or ill repute within the city.
So this is a quote from one of her reports. She noted, and
numerous reports as a pastor that she was really active in
working with the women who worked in these red light
districts. And you can really kind of tell the ruggedness of
1913 San Diego from a report March 11th, 1913 which is
talking about a four week revival where she had a guest
evangelist come and she concludes by saying 30 souls
directly or indirectly found their way to sound conversion
and entire sanctification.
She noted the spiritual battle during the revival. Wax taught
at times, reminding me of the Inquisition and the Dark Ages
when men and women put to death for their fidelity to God, and
nothing but the strong army of the law prevents us from
receiving violence, as several nights a crowd would gather in
front of the church, she said they sent a Catholic in with
concealed weapons to kill the preacher, but he was hindered by
one of God's little ones. He even followed him to the past.
Parsonage antagonized him, but two of their members were
converted and one Catholic preacher.
Sanctified. I love the language and how vivid and colourful she
is. Revivals seem to be the norm in the San Diego Church,
especially when Grant was the pastor. And this is seen again
in a 1912 San Diego Sun article where the church is kind of
talked about and know the fact that they have only about five
or six regular members, but they hold four weekly services that
average about 15 to 20 in attendance. But as the Sun
notes, because the membership is so small, grant salary was also.
Extremely small, but she had adult children who, as she
noted, subsidized her salary, so that was a nice bonus that she
was able to have. Not every female evangelist had that, but
accounts like grants in San Diego really aren't an anomaly.
By 1910, there were about 81% of all licensed female evangelists
were women. This was about a 50% increase from five years ago,
when in 1905 only 33% were women. The breast for men.
However, while women were being licensed as evangelists in
greater numbers, and this is after should remind you of 1894,
they defeated ordination for women. Women still in massive
numbers. We're going into the denomination, becoming licensed
evangelists and serving in ministry.
But they really besides being an evangelist, their official role
was kind of murky. Evangelist Ada Hall wrote an article in
April 25th, 1911 titled Forward, Backward Witch, Free Methodist,
and she outlined the frustration her and other female evangelist
had because they had to continually defend the
denomination against outsiders who questioned why the Free
Methodist Church did not allow women to be ordained.
As Hall notes, we have been humiliated and ashamed. When we
have to explain to outside people the position of our
church on this question, they always go away disappointed, for
they expect better things of us because of our high spiritual
standard as laborers together with God and with one another
and the great harvest field. Seeing the night so soon cometh,
is it not wise that you rather help these women who labour
among you and save them from laboring under the present
humiliating hindrances? She goes on, and ends by saying we had
about.
One name and knew what it stood for. We would be thankful the
question will never die down or be settled until the right is
reached. Follows the article pinpointed an ongoing rhetorical
trend within denomination, changing the title roles open to
women to give the appearance of more ministerial authority
without actually giving them any more authority. When women were
first licensed in 1878, they were simply called evangelist.
But as Hall notes later, the designation became more complex
as evangelists could be licensed by the quarterly conference.
The annual conference.
And student conference minutes really became littered with lots
of different titles for the AngelList, further really kind
of complicating the situation. Added to that the 1907 General
Conference ruling that allowed female evangelists to be
appointed as a ministerial delegates, that was something
that was even more confusing. Why could they be a ministerial
delegate yet not ordained? Within that first year
difference, conferences seated about 15 women as ministerial
delegates and 10.
Different conferences that same year, they were also allowed to
be appointed as deaconesses and Ada Hall, who wrote the article.
She herself was both one of the first deaconesses in the
denomination and also a licensed evangelist. Assumed women could
serve as many roles as they wanted as long as that role
wasn't as ordained elder.
And the debate continued really off and on throughout the next
5-10 years. They haven't really gone much beyond 1915, but the
pages of the few Methodist regularly featured kind of back
and forth on what is women's role should women be ordained.
And I want to conclude with a really powerful editorial
written by a woman evangelist who identifies herself simply as
SAH. And this was in June 22nd, 1907, she wrote a defence of her
ministry entitled The Rights of Women.
Creatures, and she argues that preaching alone is no longer
enough. Women must be allowed to baptize and marry individuals
who come to their churches, requesting, as she explains, all
are aware that preaching alone is not the only way of reaching
hearts.
So are you guys on zoom? I keep forgetting to change it. All
right, we'll go to this one. This is the final one. So as she
says, to illustrate what she means by being handcuffed, I
give the following case. A family of foreigners live in the
neighborhood of the Free Methodist Church. The babe was
very ill. The Free Methodist pastor was sent to baptize it.
She thought of the open door to the hearts of the parents, you
know, to carry the gospel. But knowing the discipline, she had
her hands tied and she had to refuse saying that.
She was not allowed to baptize.
As she said in the article, it was late in the evening. The
pastor by the time she called in a male colleague, the baby had
died.
She said it was an opportunity, obviously, to reach the family,
but the opportunity was gone. As she notes, SSAH notes cases such
as this she's often advised by brother and within the
denomination to just ignore the discipline and to go ahead and
baptize the baby. Yet she says she and other female evangelists
were asked if they were willing to be governed by the discipline
when they joined the denomination. As she said, I ask
you which is better to advise the sisters.
You violate the discipline or make a discipline which the
sisters can be governed by and carry on the work of the master
when duty calls.
Alright, so I could keep going, but I'm going to stop because
I'd rather have time for questions too.