John Wesley’s Support for Women in Ministry
From the “Preface” to: Zechariah Taft, Biographical Sketches of the Lives and Public Ministry of Various Holy Women (1825):
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher (1739-1815)
“Such were the high church principles, and the prejudice of education, of that eminent servant of Jesus Christ, the Rev. John Wesley, that for a season, he could scarcely give the right hand of fellowship, to any Labourers in the Lord’s Vineyard, that had not received Episcopal Ordination. But when he was fully convinced, that God had owned the labours of pious laymen in his community, he encouraged them to proceed. And he never molested any pious female, who was subject to discipline and order, in his Societies for calling sinners to repentance; but when fully satisfied that God had owned their labours, he gave them encouragement. This is evident in his conduct towards Mrs. Gilbert, Mrs. Johnson, Miss Bosanquet, Miss Mallet, Mrs. Crosby, Miss Hurrell, and some others. Indeed he could not have done otherwise according to his own reasoning in his Sermon “against Bigotry.” His argument throughout that Sermon is, that the conversion of sinners is the work of God, and whoever is the instrument of doing this work, is the servant of God. And we must not forbid such a one. His words are (Mark ix. 38, 39) (more…)
Evangelical, Wesleyan, Egalitarian
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher (1739-1815)
Some time back I posted this list compiled by Kevin Jackson of the Wesleyan-Arminian blog: Women Leaders in the Wesleyan Movements. I did it to make a point: support for Women in Ministry in the Wesleyan movements goes back to the days of Wesley himself — back to the very beginning of the movement. And, in this regard to holiness denominations were (generally speaking) more radical and far ahead of the Methodist Episcopal —> Methodist —> (+ EUB) —> United Methodist Church. Though, of course, the Methodists got on board too.
The revivalists were there first.
That is a paradigm shift for a lot of people. The acceptance of women in ministry in the Wesley-related movements was well ahead of the modern, secular feminist movement — and is, in that sense, unrelated to it! The more radical, Bible-thumping, revivalistic branches of the Wesleyan movement accepted the idea of women in ministry long before the official acceptance of this by the United Methodist Church. (more…)
Kevin Jackson: Women Leaders in the Wesleyan Movements
Kevin Jackson
Guest blog by Kevin Jackson. In light of the celebration of Women’s History Month, I am posting this piece by Kevin Jackson of the Wesleyan-Arminian blog. Kevin says of himself: “I live in the Pacific Northwest (the Tri Cities). I work at a credit union, doing network administration. I’ve been married since 1993. We have three children. We are active in our church, and both come from a Nazarene background. I love to study God’s word. My favorite scripture passages are: Matthew 5-8, Romans 8, Philippians 2, and the book of First John. My hobbies are: blogging, studying theology, memorizing scripture, hiking, backpacking, gardening, politics, and wasting time on the computer.”
This post is a well researched list of women who were leaders in the early Wesleyan movements. (more…)