roles of women in the wesleyan revival: the beginning of a long revolution

1. Roles of Women in the Wesleyan Revival: The Beginning of a Long Revolution Dr. Cindy K. Wesley

4. Wesley and Women�s Leadership Women and men share spiritual equality. Women, no less than men, should speak both privately and publicly about their experiences of conversion, justification and sanctification Women should demonstrate the fruits of faith in their service and leadership

5. Influences on Wesley�s Attitude The Model of the Primitive Church: The role of the deaconness mentioned in various New Testament texts, as well as in The Apostolic Constitutions

6. Influences The Moravians

7. Influences William Law, especially A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

8. Influences Susannah Wesley

9. Epworth Rectory Epworth RectoryEpworth Rectory

10. Epworth KitchenThis is where Susannah educated her children

11. Letter of Susannah Wesley to Samuel Wesley, January 1711/12

12. Susannah Wesley

13. Roles of Women in the Methodist Revival Spiritual Counselors Participants in various meetings, where they might have the opportunity to speak Class/band leaders Founders of Methodist Societies Founders of Day Schools (Leytonstone and Keynsheim) Leaders of the first Sunday Schools (Hannah Ball of High Wycombe) Founders of Chapels (Darcy, Lady Maxwell and Selena, Countess of Huntingdon Founder of a Methodist Connexion of preachers (namely the Connexion established by Selena, Countess of Huntingdon) and theological college (Trevecca) Speakers, preachers, and revivalists

14. Mary Bosanquet Fletcher founder of Methodist Society and School for Orphans at Leytonstone, near Leeds

15. Defense of Women in Public Forms of Ministry The woman has an extraordinary call

16. John Wesley to Mary Bosanquet, 1771 �I think the strength of the cause rests there � on your having an extraordinary call�It is plain to me that the whole work of God termed Methodism is an extraordinary dispensation of His providence. Therefore I do not wonder if several things occur therein which do not fall under the ordinary rules of discipline.�[i] [i] Telford, LJW, v. 5, 257.

17. Defense of Women in Ministry The woman has a high level of spiritual development

18. Defense of Women in Ministry The early church had women in the role of deacon. They were given the tasks of preaching and teaching. Women in the Methodist movement were called to speak as an act of service and leadership that grew out of devotion to God.

19. Defense of Women in Ministry The fruits of their preaching was evidence of their calling

20. Opposition to Women Preachers as Stated by the Methodist Conference in 1803 Because a vast majority of our people are opposed to it. Because their preaching does not at all seem necessary, there being a sufficiency of Preachers, who God has accredited, to supply all the places in our Connexion with regular preaching.[i]

21. Limitations to Women Speaking Women could only address other women. Women were not permitted to preach in the circuit in which they resided without formal approval of both the Superintendent and the Quarterly meeting. In order to speak outside her circuit of residence, a woman had to receive a written invitation from the Superintendent, as well as a written recommendation from her own Superintendent.

22. Catherine BoothCo-founder of the Salvation Army

23. Booth�s Defense of Women Preaching The Bible give many examples of women who had an extraordinary call to leadership, including Phoebe of Romans 16:1. Women who have answered the call led lives of exemplary faithfulness

24. Booth�s Reference to Early Methodist Women �there have been some in all ages in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought so mightily, that at the sacrifice of reputation and all things most dear, they have been compelled to come out as witnesses for Jesus and ambassadors of His gospel. As a rule, these women have been amongst the most devoted and self-denying of the Lord�s people, giving indisputable evidence by the purity and beauty of their lives that they were led by the Spirit of God. Now, if the word of God forbids female ministry, we would ask how it happens that so many of the most devoted handmaidens of the Lord have felt themselves constrained by the Holy Ghost to exercise it�Will any one venture to asset that such women as Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, Mrs. Fletcher of Madeley, and Mrs. Smith have been deceived with respect to their call to deliver the gospel message to their fellow-creatures? If not, then God does call and qualify women to preach, and His word, rightly understood, cannot forbid what His Spirit enjoins.[

25. Booth�s Reference to Mary Fletcher This eminently devoted lady opened an orphan house, and devoted her time, her heart, and her fortune, to the work of the Lord. The Rev. Mr. Hodson, in referring to her public labours says, �Mrs. Fletcher was not only luminous but truly eloquent � her discourses displayed much good sense, and were fraught with the riches of the gospel. She excelled in that poetry of an orator which can alone supply the place of all the rest � that eloquence which goes directly to the heart. She was the honoured instrument of doing much good; and the fruit of her labours is now manifest in the lives and tempers of numbers who will be her crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord.

26. The Salvation Army Model Men and women had equal roles in the Salvation Army

27. General Evangeline Booth

28. Salvation Army Ladies Band

29. The Salvation Army Female Soldier

30. The Salvation Army Lassie

31. Phoebe Palmer Influenced by Wesley�s doctrine of sanctification. Inward holiness must be expressed in outward behavior and appearance. Those who have experienced the work of God in their lives are compelled to speak about it lest they lose what they have gained.

32. Palmer and Women Preaching Evangelism and public testimony are essential to the life of the sanctified Christian: �The Holy Spirit�s quickening flames may fall, energizing your whole being, and the cloven tongue of fire may be given, so that you may feel intense longings to spread the sacred flame, and speak as the Spirit gives utterance.� (The Promise of the Father, 1859)

33. Jarena Lee MY CALL TO PREACH THE GOSPEL Between four and five years after my sanctification, on a certain time, an impressive silence fell upon me, and I stood as if some one was about to speak to me, yet I had no such thought in my heart. - But to my utter surprise there seemed to sound a voice which I thought I distinctly heard, and most certainly understand, which said to me, "Go preach the Gospel!" I immediately replied aloud, "No one will believe me." Again I listened, and again the same voice seemed to say - "Preach the Gospel; I will put words in your mouth, and you will turn your enemies to become your friends."

34. Frances WillardLeader of the Women�s Christian Temperance Union

35. The Temperance Ladies

36. Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw

37. Shaw the Suffragist

38. Best of all, God is with us� ��I do nothing but what Mr. Wesley approves.� (Mary Bosanquet on her public preaching)