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At a Congregational church in 1853, Antoinette Brown became the first woman formally ordained to ministry in the United States. The Rev. Luther Lee, a Wesleyan Meth odist abolitionist, said at her ordination, "All we are here to do, and all we expect to do, in due form, and by solemn and impressive service, [is] to subscribe our testimony to the fact that in our belief, our sister in Christ, Antoinette L. Brown, is one of the ministers of the New Cov enant, authorized, qualified, and called of God to preach the gospel of his Son Jesus Christ."

Just this summer, The Wesleyan Church issued a statement affirming that stance: "The Wesleyan Church, on the basis of the total content of Scripture, believes that a wo man is fully equal to man in terms of her right (as directed by the Holy Spirit and authorized by the Church) to teach, preach, lead or govern (including supervisory roles and board memberships), lead worship, or serve in any other office or ministry of the Church."

The formal recognition of the right to minister did not come easily in the 19th century. During a revival in West Texas, Nazarene minister Mary Lee Harris Cagle was accused of abandoning her children (she had none) and operating a bordello (an odd accusation for one who felt wearing short sleeves or jewelry was immodest).

In 1904 Church of God evangelist Lena Shoffner faced off with a man who stormed the platform, shouting, "I rebuke thee in the name of the Lord," as she preached.

Most of these women toiled as itinerant evangelists, missionaries, teachers in church-related schools, and reform workers among the poor. Many entered the ministry after raising children. Naza rene pastor Agnes Diffee recoiled at the label "woman preacher" because of the cultural slap the term carried. Yet she was called to preach, and because of her leadership the membership of her church in Little Rock, Arkansas, surpassed 1,100 by 1949.

Many of the Wesleyan/Holiness denominations sprouted during the first decades of the 20th century, and the ranks of wom en ministers swelled slightly. Fledgling grassroots revivalist movements were happy to accept the efforts of gifted leaders, both male and female. Women constituted 32 percent of Church of God, Anderson, pastors in 1925.

Things began to shift that same year. The Scopes Trial made public the growing split between modernism and the conservative religious community. For the next two decades, the evangelical community retreated and set up a parallel society with separate publishers and schools—and a stronger emphasis on separate spheres for men and wo men. That emphasis led to fewer ordinations for women in evangelical churches.

When the second wave of feminism broke onto American shores in the 1960s, Wesleyan/Holiness churches, like their SBC counterparts, became uneasy. Four decades later, the core questions surrounding women's roles continue to provoke differing answers within Wesleyan/Holiness congregations. Are women created equally in God's image and given spiritual gifts and graces for which they are morally and spiritually accountable? Or are women divinely designed to find fulfillment through motherhood and supportive roles?

This focus on spiritual and prophetic leadership frees women to serve, lead, and hold differing opinions. A good number of women attending Wesleyan/Holiness churches continue to embrace the ideals of "true feminity" (first defined by Catharine Beecher, who outlined "a woman's sphere of influence" before the Civil War.) Others who share the pews or step into the pulpit mightly gladly claim a feminism rooted in equality in Christ.

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September 4 2000, Vol. 44, No. 10