3.25.2009

Nothing but jealousy

The Pilgrim Holiness Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church merged in 1968 to become The Wesleyan Church.
Here is a bit of history that you might find interesting and encouraging.
The Pilgrim Holiness church, founded by Seth Rees (father of Paul S. Rees, prominent in the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals in the 1940s), opened wide the door to women preachers who comprised 30 percent of its ordained elders in its early decades. Rees's wife served with him as copastor and coevangelist. Against those who opposed women preachers, Rees countered, "Nothing but jealousy, prejudice, bigotry, and a stingy love for bossing in men have prevented woman's public recognition by the Church."-Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, 98

Who am I that I should withstand God?

As a result of Wesley's changing attitude about the role of female preachers in his movement and the testimony of many witnesses to the abundant fruit of their labor, the English Methodist Conference was eventually led to recognize officially a number of these exceptional women. In these later years, when Wesley was asked why he encouraged certain of his female devotees in this practice, the elderly sage replied simply, "Because God owns them in the conversion of sinners, and who am I that I should withstand God"-Chilcote, John Wesley and the Women, 182.

3.22.2009

First Women's Rights Convention














Women’s Rights Meetings Held in Wesleyan Methodist Chapel-1848

"The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848, in the Wesleyan Methodist chapel. Four years later, when the New York State Temperance Convention refused to recognize delegates from the Women’s State Temperance Society or to hear Miss
Susan B. Anthony, Luther Lee defended the women’s right to participate. When his efforts to convince the conference failed, he opened his church, the Syracuse Wesleyan Methodist chapel, to the women for an evening meeting.
The church was packed, while the convention was almost deserted." --Women in Wesleyan Ministry: A Brief History by Mari Gonlag